Palla Ákos szerk.: Az Országos Orvostörténeti Könyvtár közleményei 3. (Budapest, 1956)

J. BALOGH, M. D.: The hungarian traumatic surgery in the first part of the 19th century

anymore to induce anaesthesia, which is extensively used, especially in reducing dislocations. Chloroform („hangyhalvag") is most often used. It is remarkable that no mention is made of general anaesthesia in connection with major operations or reduction of fractures. Attempts are made further to develop anaesthetic techniques. Emil Nágel, a Kolozsvár professor of surgery, who had been well-known just because of his competent articles on cases of traumatic surgery, devised an apparatus for inducing anaesthesia, which he demonstrated on the 10th of March, 1870, in Wien, in the presence of Billroth and was praised for it. Balassa and his school regularly employed anaesthesia, continuous traction and pulley splints in the treatment of dislocations and fractures. The fractured limb was caught in an iron horseshoe, placed on the double slope of Cooper and traction was induced by the use of weights. A number of reports deal with cases of lower limb fractures, which united without any considerable shortening of the affected limb after treatment by this method. The treatment of dislocation of the humeroscapular joint is extensively dealt with. The clinical descriptions presented and the pathoanatomical knowledge are remarkably fresh even today and dislocations were reduced with astonishingly good results. Particularly competent are the papers by Balassa and Lumniczer. Very interesting cases are described by Nágel. A series of articles by Balassa on the dislocations of the hip joint is of classical value. The various kinds of splints are extensively and purposefuly employed in the treatment of traumatic ailments. Balassa and his school achieved most in this field. The splints were made of plaster of Pari®, dextrin, curd, cardboard, wooden tile. In discussing the case of a women, who had suffered a contusion of a joint, Balassa emphasized the importance of immobilisation after trauma, even in the absence of fracture. No such article can be found in Orvosi Tár (O. T.), in which a given curative procedure would be described as having been tried out in larger material. The impression one gets is that the experiences of individual doctors were communicated from