An Essay on Compound Dislocation of the Ancle[!] for the Degree of Doctor of Medicine in the University of Pennsylvania." Chester County, Pennsylvania. Philadelphia, January 1832

This item is currently on reserve; please contact dealer for more details. 4to. 250 x 200 mm., [10 x 8 inches]. 20 pp. Written in very legible hand. Text tied with green ribbon at spine; some early repair to tears in the paper, some of the leaves may have been washed early on. Text brown in places but the manuscript is quite good condition. Pages 17 and 18 appear twice and show some corrections. Founded in 1765, the University of Pennsylvania medical school is the nation's first. This essay, by Samuel Hayes Harry (1809-1881), who was a candidate for a medical degree, quotes from Sir Astley Cooper on granulations in the synovial fluid of joints and other medical details concerning "ancles". Harry points out that amputation was considered necessary in previous cases of ankle dislocation and adds that modern thought has changed on the subject. Harry also describes a particular ankle injury case, which ultimately did result in the death of the patient. "I think it would have been highly unjustifiable, not to have attempted in the first instance, to save the limb....the indication to be answered is the speedy healing of the wound... for it has been found in simple dislocations, adhesion speedily takes place...It was therefore certainly an error in the treatment of the above case, that the edges of the wound were not brought together and secured by sticks, and adhesive plaster..." The founder of the School of Medicine was a young Philadelphia physician, John Morgan. The early faculty, including Morgan, had earned medical degrees at the University of Edinburgh and in advanced courses in London. With the University of Edinburgh as their model, they emphasized the need to supplement medical lectures with bedside teaching.