Chapter I: Preface

I have been requested, from time to time, by my numerous patients and friends to publish some record of the Bone-setter’s art, to which they can refer their relatives and acquaintances, when asked for some particulars of the cures effected and the pain alleviated by those who follow the profession of a Bone-setter. I am aware that in acceding to the request of those who “have the courage of their convictions,” I am laying myself open to the sneers and innuendos of the medical profession generally; but as the descendant of a long line of Bone-setters, who distinguished themselves in the profession they followed, and whose name was a “household word” in Midland homes when broken bones, sprains, and dislocations occurred. I feel, as the inheritor of their practice and in some degree of their reputation, that I should not be true to myself and to the profession I follow, if I did not comply with a request so gracefully made by those who have not only placed their faith in the special practice I pursue, but who are grateful for the relief from pain they have felt, the ultimate cures effected, and who wish to make their experiences widely known.

It was, therefore, with diffidence that I collected from divers sources the testimony of those who are beyond the reach of suspicion, as to the cures which those who practise the “Art of the Bone-setter” have accomplished, even after experienced surgeons have failed; but I was reassured when I found that these recorded cures, and the repute of the hundreds of thousands which have not been recorded, but which are treasured in the memories of a thankful people, had aroused a feeling of emulation (for I can hardly use any other term) in the surgical world to adopt some of our methods, which up to a recent period, they had publicly called the arts of the charlatan and the quack, and resolved to practise in that “neglected corner of the domain of surgery” which they had before ridiculed. They did not hesitate to apply terms of approbrium to us when they were, according to their own admission, ignorant of our practice, attributing our cures to “luck” and our popularity to tampering with and trading on the prejudices of the poor and ignorant, instead of inquiring into their truth.

Dr. Wharton Hood in his treatise “On Bone-setting (so-called)” has pointed out that even Sir James Paget (eminent though he is in the surgical world) spoke in ignorance when, in a clinical lecture delivered at St. Bartholomew’s in 1867, he detailed the “Cases that Bone-setters may cure.” His arguments were founded on conjecture, therefore many of his conclusions were wrong. The great master of the world of surgery, however, deserves the thanks of the Bone-setters at large, for he was the first to stand forth in the whole of the medical profession to announce that the much despised and ridiculed Bone-setters were in possession of a “knack”—an art—which surgeons had long overlooked and neglected which tended to alleviate pain and to restore the use of lost limbs to unfortunate sufferers from accidents and other external injuries. Dr. Wharton Hood appears to have taken Sir James Paget’s words to heart, for becoming acquainted with the late Mr. Richard Hutton, the well-known Bone-setter, whose name so frequently appears in these pages, he studied his method of procedure and practice. On the death of that gentleman, Dr. Hood published his experiences with diagrams, and since that period—now some dozen years ago a change has taken place in the expression of professional opinion with respect to the art of the Bone-setter. There is no attempt now to deny that in practical surgery, that what is called the Empirical School, can hold its own against mere scientific theory. They have vindicated our art from the charge of quackery and charlatanism. It would now appear they now want to secure our practice as well as our reputation as skillful manipulators. I feel therefore I am more than justified in thus publishing the testimony of relieved patients, of the almost recantation of the faculty with respect to our art, to justify those who have trusted our skill and who have seen no cause to regret it.

There may, indeed, be persons who call themselves bone-setters, who are ignorant, presumptuous, and destitute alike of skill and experience, whose blunders are charged on the profession generally—there may be many such whose names are even in the _Medical Registry_—but no one can read the testimony of men beyond the reach of bribe, and who have no personal interest to serve, without admitting that there are Bone-setters who have both skill and experience as well as the ability to use their acquirements for the benefit of suffering mankind. The art, it is true, may not be taught in schools, but it is at least as old as Hippocrates, if not coeval with mankind’s “loss of Eden.” I have felt it a duty to myself, to my relatives, to my patients and friends, as well as to my fellow professors of the art to publish this testimony and vindication.

I have acknowledged as far as possible the sources from which I have taken the information in the following pages, if any have been accidentally omitted, I hope this apology will be sufficient. To those friends who have helped me with their advice and supervision of these pages I tender my warmest thanks, as well as to those patients who have offered their testimony to my own skill and success, and allowed me to add them to those collected from public sources for this book, as Turner wrote in his edition to “The Compleat Bone-setter” some two hundred years ago is not intended for Sutorian or Scissarium doctors, but I leave them amongst the Caco-Chymists, to boast of their _arcanas_, but not of their reason, whilst I shall modestly remain

GEO. MATTHEWS BENNETT,

Milverton, Leamington, Easter, 1884.

_ERRATA._

Page 16, line 10, for “Captain” _read_ “Copt.”
Page 32, line 14, for “hind” _read_ “him.”
Page 85, line 4, for “former” _read_ “latter.”
Page 123, line 10, for “hreak” _read_ “break.”
Page 132, line 4, _dele_ “which.”

PLATE 4, Figure 18, “tibia and fibula” are misprinted for
“ulna and radius.”

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.—BONE-SETTERS AND THEIR ART.

“At present my desire is to have a good Bone-setter.”—Sir J. DENHAM.

Surgery in the past—_The Compleat Bone-setter_—Old
practitioners—Sneers of the Faculty—Praise by Mr.
Charles Waterton—Mrs. Mapp of Epsom, her success—_Regina
Dal Cin_—German toleration—The late Mr. Richard
Hutton—Testimony of the _Lancet_—Mr. Burbidge of
Frumley—Mr. Joseph Crowther of Wakefield—Egyptian
Bone-setters—Algerian practitioners. 1-18

CHAPTER II.—THE TESTIMONY OF THE PUBLIC.

“The simple energy of Truth needs no ambiguous interpreters.”—EURIPIDES.

Mr. C. Waterton’s case—The testimony of Mr. G. Moore, his
anguish, his hesitation, and his relief. 34

CHAPTER III.—THE TESTIMONY OF THE PUBLIC.—_Continued._

“All these are good, and these we must allow, and these are everywhere in practice now.”—TAYLOR, _the Water Poet_.

Mr. William Chamber’s testimony—A drummer
practitioner—Various testimonies—An Indian civilian—Mr.
Evan Thomas—A Northant’s Clergyman on the author’s
skill—Cases mentioned by Dr. Wharton Hood—Mr. Hutton’s
skill—The testimony of the Hon. Spencer Ponsonby—The
testimony of Dr. Wharton Hood—A correspondent of _Nature_, on
a scientific Bone-setter. 67

CHAPTER IV.—THE TESTIMONY OF THE FACULTY.

“What in the Captain’s but a choleric word is in the soldier rank blasphemy.”

Sir James Paget on “Cases that Bone-setters cure”—Change
of opinion—Valuable testimony, and strange doubts—The
opinion of the _British Medical Journal_—The _Lancet_,
on the Bone-setters Art—Doubts of the faculty—Mr.
Archibald Maclaren’s Independent review in _Nature_—His
astonishment—“_Is it quackery?_” 87

CHAPTER V.—THE FACULTY IN DOUBT.

“Why what you have observed, Sir, seems so impossible.”—BEN JONSON.

Mr. Howard Marsh’s experience—Mr. Hulke—Dr. Monckton—Dr.
Bruce Clark in doubt—Dr. Keetley—A gleam of truth at the
Clinical Society. 94

CHAPTER VI.—DISPARAGEMENT AND VINDICATION.

“Who shall decide when doctors disagree.”

The Jubilee of the Medical Association—Dr.
Howard Marsh on the Bone-setter—False
deductions—Disparagement—Inconsistencies. 102

CHAPTER VII.—VINDICATION.

“Is this then your wonder? nay, then you shall hear more of my skill.”—BEN JONSON.

Mr. R. Dacre Fox relates his experiences—Old Lancashire
Bone-setters—What Bone-setters really do cure—Hints for the
Doubters—A Professional Vindication. 115

CHAPTER VIII.—WHAT BONE-SETTERS CURE.

“Man’s life, sir, being so short, and then the way that leads unto the knowledge of ourselves, so long and tedious; each minute should be precious.”—BEAUMONT & FLETCHER.

A Bone-setter’s Refutation—The Human Skeleton
and its parts—Liability to Injury—Symptoms—The
_Illustrations_.—Dislocations—Fractures and Ruptures—The
Arteries—Mode of stopping bleeding—Hints for Bystanders. 136