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Show ; IS D?v. L02nL :i ; . s::.::ly an -: j OST0PATH?; Public OpinlonJ y Dr. Lorenz, the Austrian surgeon now In this country performing operations, opera-tions, for the reduction of dislocations of the hip, Is called by the Chicago Tribune Tri-bune "an osteopath of the n-th degree." Osteopathic Health, a Chicago Journal devoted to the exposition of the "osteopathic "osteo-pathic school of medicine and surgery," claims that Dr. Loreni has been anticipated antic-ipated and Improved upon by Dr. A. T. Still,- tho founder of the osteopathic f ystem, " In describing his method of setting dislocated hip Joints, Dr. Lorena says: "I knew that the contracted muscles would have to be stretched or torn. I was at first frightened at the strength it took to do the work that the knife had done.- I had to .tear the tissues of the shortened muscles. The limb at first resisting all my efforts Anally became be-came pliable. I found that I could stretch the muscles a great deal, but when they would not stretch I would have ' to tear them. Finally tbo leg was brought Into its normal position. i But the head of the femur would not fit the hip cavity. Bo I took that thigh bone and by main force I bored it Into the cavity. Thla was shallow and of insufficient depth to admit of the whole of the ball of the femur. So I placed the leg in that position in which the ball of the femur fitted most accurate- ly into the cavity. Then I bound it and made It rigid, with a plaster of parts cast. As soon as the soreness of the torn muscles and stretched ligaments liga-ments had disappeared I encouraged the child to walk. The cast remained : in place about five months, at the end of which the constant pressure of the child's weight had deepened the hip socket, and a normal Joint had formed. Two years afterward the child did not even limp." This is. an account of tbe first trial of his method. Since then Dr. Lorenr has performed over 1000 successful operations, the last being In New York last week. 'The characteristic features of this Austrian bloodless method," Osteopathic Osteopa-thic Health says, "are that It employs an anaesthetic; it uses force to tear tissues out of the way and permit the hip bone going back Into its socket; and it holds the limb in place from six to nine months with a plaster cast after af-ter resetUng. Osteopathy Is Just that much more clever than the Lorenz method that it does none of these things. Instead of an anaesthetic, which is used by Dr. Lorenz to relax all muscles and ligaments for the operation, ope-ration, rather than deaden pain, the osteopath, throuprh weeks nd months. In the average hip case, applies passive motion (which Is not usually pumial) j In such a way as to overcome all ab- j nornjal contractions of tissue, to make them again soft, pliable and yielding; and a little at a tttne to accuptom the wandering hip bone to retrace its pathway, path-way, so that at the time of the final operation there is no tearing of adja cent structures necessary. Osteopathy does not require a plaster cast to hold the hip bone In its socket, if the socket haa fully formed. .Once a hip has been set by-thls method, all the muscles apd ligaments have previously been brought ! into normal condition and tension, or else the dislocation is not yet overcome." over-come." Dr. Still, in an interview in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, makes similar claims. i : i |