On the Articulations (76-77)

In dislocation forward, the same mode of extension should be made; but a person who has very strong hands, and is well trained, should place the palm of the one hand on the groin, and taking hold of this hand with the other, is at the same time to push the dislocated part downward, and at the same time to the fore part of the knee. This method of reduction is most especially conformable to this mode of dislocation. And the mode of suspension is also not far removed from being natural, but the person suspended should be well trained, so that his arm may not act as a lever upon the joint, but that the force of the suspension may act about the middle of the perineum, and at the os sacrum.

Reduction by the bladder is also celebrated in dislocations at this joint, and I have seen certain persons who, from ignorance, attempted to reduce both dislocations outward and backward therewith, not knowing that they were rather displacing than replacing the parts; it is clear, however, that he who first invented this method intended it for dislocation inward. It is proper, then, to know how the bladder should be used, if it is to be used, and it should be understood that many other methods are more powerful than it. The bladder should be placed between the thighs uninflated, so that it may be carried as far up the perineum as possible, and the thighs beginning at the patella are to be bound together with a swathe, as far up as the middle of the thigh, and then a brass pipe is to be introduced into one of the loose feet of the bladder, and air forced into it, the patient is to lie on his side with the injured limb uppermost. This, then, is the preparation; some, however, do the thing worse than as I have described, for they do not bind the thighs together to any extent, but only at the knees, neither do they make extension, whereas extension should be made, and yet some people by having the good fortune to meet with a favorable case, have succeeded in making reduction. But it is not a convenient method of applying force, for the bladder, when inflated, does not present its most prominent part to the articular extremity of the femur, which is the place