QUACKERY—WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO FEMALE COMPLAINTS

CASE xxIII.-Annie M., aged 14, was brought to the out-patient room of St. Bartholomew's Hospital,with the leftkneesostrongly flexed that the heel touched the tuber ischii. Her mother said that, fourteen days before, the child had fallen down upon her kuee, and that the limb had contracted two days afterwards. A bruise was still visible over the prominent part of the internal condyle of the femur. On examination of the knee I could find neither swelling, heat, nor tenderness; in fact, the joint looked perfectly normal. Regarding the contraction as of mere' nervous origin, I pretended to search for and find a particular spot in the popliteal space, and, pressing my finger strongly in, peremptorily ordered the patient to straighten the limb. She did so at once, and while the finger was still pressed upon the surface she walked round the room. The contraction did not return. CASE xxIv.-A servant, aged 17, after she had accidentally pricked her third flnger, had kept it tightly flexed on the palm for two months, and protested that she could not straighten it. Seeing there was nothing the matter, I pretended to pass electricity through it by pressing two sponges in holders (but not conrected with the battery) upon it. She immediately straightened lier flinger, and was quite cured. Although movement under Pas was not the metbod adopted in these two cases,. they belong to a group in which that treatment is highly efficacious.