Page:A Treatise on the Diseases of the Bones.djvu/137

Rh an operation for its removal, in which his own eclat, and not the true interest of the patient, is concerned.

It sometimes happens that exostoses mortify, and are thrown off like exfoliations. Among the medical and chirurgical cases of Haller, there is an account given by Dr Sporing of Abo, of an osseous excrescence, which grew from the bone in the immediate vicinity of the internal canthus of the eye. The patient was a young man, thirty- five years of age, who lived in Ahala. The exos- tosis grew to the size of a very large walnut, and from its magnitude nearly pushed the eye out of its socket, and impaired the vision ; — a camp-sur- geon tried to remove it, by promoting exfoliation ; but the wound bled so freely, that he was happy to close it up again. — In December 1736, how- ever, a peasant, named Olof-Ikain, offered to try his skill, — beginning with an incision round the bone, which caused a great effusion of blood, and afterwards applying to it some secret remedy, which gave intolerable pain. The pain, attended with faintings, continued for twelve days. Several months afterwards, however, he had the courage to undergo the operation again. In the following