A Letter from Dr. Wellwood, to the Hon. Lady Ahhurst, Madam, HE French girl, your Ladyfhip has feen, as she is now, THE and has heard the depofitions of several perfons, whom you have no caule to difbelieve, how fhe was before. It is certain fhe was deplorably lame from her childhood till the 26th of November laft; and it is certain, fince that time till now, fhe. goes ftraight. How he came to be cured in an inftant, is the question, and fuch a one as I am not able to determine. But to give your Ladyfhip all the fatisfaction I can, I fhall, in as few words as poffible, fet down the manner, causes, and confequents, of her lameness, so far as they occur to me from any thing I know in Anatomy; and, in the next place, fhall enquire how far the cure of it, as it is fworn to, can be ascribed to a natural influence. First, It appears by the affidavits you fent me, "That when She came to be about thirteen months old, fhe was obferved to be lame, and fome time after there appeared a hollowness in the place, where one ufually finds the knitting of the thigh bone to the hip, as alfo a confiderable swelling ahove that place," to give it in their own words. In procefs of time she grew worfe and worfe, and not only the thigh bone became both higher up, and Shorter than it used to be, but her knee and the ankle bone of that leg turned inwards; fo that she went upon the ankle, the fole of her foot turning upwards, and all this attended with a great deal of pain." Here, Madam, you have the hiflory of the disease, and all these symptoms are the natural effects of a diflocation of the thigh bone. here affected. To render this the more intelligible, give me leave, Madam, to lay down a short hint of the natural ftructure of the parts The thigh bone has at the upper end a round head; this is received by a large cavity of the hip bone, and is detained and fixed therein by two ftrong ligaments, one that encompasses the brim of the cavity, and another that fprings Out out of the bottom of it, and is inferted into the tip of the round head of the thigh bone, in order to the movement of the thigh, and confequently of the whole body. Nature has wifely accompanied these bones, with cartilages, mufcles, tendons, and ligaments, which are all of them fo varioufly placed and situated, as to answer every beck of the foul, in moving either backwards or forwards, to the infide, to the outfide, or obliquely. This being the natural structure of the parts, a dislocation of the thigh happens, when the round head of the thigh bone is by fome violence difplaced out of the large cavity of the hip bone. This cannot happen but by fome violent force, because of the ftrength of the mufcles that help to keep the bone in its proper place, of the depth of the cavity where it is lodged, and the firength and shortnefs of the ligaments I have named. The longer fuch a diflocation lafts, the lefs it is curable, feeing by it the ligaments and mufcles must be greatly relaxed, and fo much the more, if the patient walk about, as this girl did: for 'the more stress she put on that leg, the more muft these parts be relaxed, they bearing in Tuch a cafe, moft, if not all, the weight of that fide of the body, which the thigh bone should have done, if it had been in its proper place. It is to me beyond all queftion, that in the cafe of this poor Refugee, there was a luxation or diflocation of the thigh bone, and of the four kinds of it reckoned up by Anatomifts, it must neceffarily have been what they call a diflocation outwards. A hollowness on the place of the joint, a confiderable tumour a little above it, the thigh bone of that fide being both higher and shorter than the other, a conflant pain attending, with a turning inwards of the knee and ankle, and a turning upwards of the fole of the foot, are all of them agreed by Anatomifts and Surgeons to be undoubted figns, as well as neceffary confequents of this kind of diflocation. The place of the joint muft needs have appeared hollow, partly for want of the cavity, its being filled with the round head of the thigh bone, and partly from the up rifing tumour above it. The tumour itself has been nothing elfe but the round head turned outward with the mufcles and fleshy parts around it: the pain was owing to the ftretching of the ligaments, and nervous parts, and to their fupplying the office of the thigh bone in fuftaining that fide of the body. I am, with all poffible refpect, your Ladyfhip's most humble and obedient fervant, J. WELLWOOD. The Affidavit of the Father and Mother of the CHILD. E, John Maillard and Charlotte du Dognon, of the town of Coignac in Xaintonge, now living at the corner of Newport-Court in Westminster, do certify, that Mary Maillard our daughter was born at Coignac the 5th day of September 1680; and that about twelve or thirteen months after fhe was born, we obferved that fhe was very lame, having a hollowness in the place where one ufually finds a knitting of the thigh bone in the hip. The Surgeon, to whom we fhewed her at that time, found there was no remedy for her; fo our daughter always continued in that condition, and became more and more Jame, infomuch that fince we have lived in this city, the bone of her thigh was not only higher than it used to be, but her knee alfo was turned inward, and the ankle bone of her left foot turned likewife in fuch a manner that it touched the ground, and that leg was fhorter than the other by four inches or thereabouts, and which made her go very deformedly, feeling great pain. About two years fince we fhewed her to Monfieur Debatz, Surgeon to the French Refugees, who, having examined her, judged her difeafe incurable, the bone having been fo long put out of its place; and therefore he advised us to chafe it with certain oils, to try if we could alleviate her pains, which we did, but without fuccefs. About that time a gentlewoman, whose name was Laulan, defired us to let her have her to be an Interpreter to her in English, which we did, and fhe has lived with her ever fince till now, continuing VOL. XIV. 3 X continuing always lame and fo deformed, that the little childrent were used to follow her in the streets, and to give her many nick names, fuch as ftruck at her deformity. She went to the French Church behind Leicester-Fields on Sunday the 26th of November laft, and coming from thence home, fhe was again. followed by the children, who threw dirt upon her, and fol lowed her with injurious reproaches even to St. James's-Alley, near St. James's-Church in Germain-Street, where then lodged Mademoifelle de Laulan, at an English Apothecary's house. This evil treatment put our girl into fuch a confternation, that she went weeping into her mistress's chamber, who, after fhe had understood the caufe of her crying, advifed her to read the holy Scriptures to comfort her, which fhe did; and in reading the fecond chapter of the Gofpel of St. Mark, which gave an account of the healing of one fick of the palsy, and the incredulity of the Jews: this girl fhewed a furprize at their obftinacy, and declared to her mistress, as we have heard from her own mouth, that if fhe had lived at that time, the fhould have had faith to have been healed: and at the same inflant fhe felt a great pain, and heard a noise that the bone of her thigh made, and thought fhe heard a voice which faid to her, Thou art cured." The crack the bone made was heard by her mistress at the fame inftant, between seven and eight o'clock in the evening, on the fix and twentieth day of November laft, when she was actually cured, and continues to be in fo good a condition, that she now walks upright, her legs being of the fame length, her knee, her foot, her hip, and thigh, being in their natural fituation. In witnefs whereof, we have figned this Certificate in London this eighteenth day of December 1693. ་་ Jurat 19 Die Decem. 1693, coram me, John Maillard, An ***C*0*00*0*0*0*0** An EXTRACT from an ACCOUNT of the PELEW ISLANDS, in the PACIFIC OCEAN. By CAPTAIN HENRY WILSON. [Continued from page 477.] EPTEMBER 22. The pinnace having been fent this day to SEP the wreck, at her return in the evening brought fixteen more bags of rice, and alfo information that the king had fent his canoes thither, and had carried away one of the fixpounders. September 28. Raa Kook arrived at Oroolong in the evening, accompanied by two Chiefs of fome of the neighbouring islands; who came in three canoes, and brought presents of yams, cocoa-nuts, and three jars of moloffes.-— -Our people had been all the day bufied about the veffel, and were juft then going to prayers; all the Pelew people attended the fervice, and behaved with the greateft decency: one or two of them happening to speak, Raa Kook checked them; and they afterwards obferved ftrict filence. While at prayers, the Malay, Soogle, arrived from Pelew with a meffage to the general from Abba Thulle, and coming into the tent was going to deliver it; but Raa Kook, unwilling that the English should be interrupted, made a motion with his hand to keep filence, till the Captain (to whom he pointed) had done reading. After prayers, having received the meffage, he and the ftrangers entered into converfation with Captain Wilson and his officers, and after fome time the General asked for fifteen men, and one of the swivel-guns, to go with them on another expedition. The king, flufhed with the advantages he had already gained, feemed defirous to avenge himself of all his enemies.-Captain Wilfon thought this a favourable opportunity to mention to the General fuch things as he conceived he had to complain of; 3 X 2 firft, |