Boston, Mass., Jan. 2, 1898.
To the Editor:
—You recently published an abstract from an English journal stating that an English surgeon (Hutchinson?) taught his hospital internes not to use splints on this form of fracture, "unless there was a tendency for the malposition to return after cessation of extension upon the wrist" (vide Journal, xxxi, p. 1424). This variety of Colles' fracture, by the way, is extraordinary, at least on this side of the Atlantic. Roberts of Philadelphia says, in his admirable monograph on "Fractures of the Lower End of the Radius": "The displacement (in Colles' fracture) is the result, not of muscular action, but of the vulnerating force," and further, that "the muscular surroundings have little to do with the causation or continuance of the distortion." I think most surgeons will agree with him. Practically, therefore, this English surgeon advises that cases of Colles' fracture be treated without