A prominent idea set forth in this work is defined as "conservatism," or "expectant" treatment of hip disease. A large amount of discussion is given to the relative merits of this expectant or waiting treatment and the mechanical treatment, so-called, of most orthopedists. It is evident that the author has been led into a vagary, in part resulting from a wrong point of view, and from want of comprehensiveness in his survey of the subject. As is often the case with specialists, the very minuteness of his knowledge has led him to become careless or oblivious of the most obvious and fundamental facts of his subject.
The author's mind seems incapable of receiving broad views. It is perversely narrow. The mechanical treatment of hip disease is not falling into disuse, and has not proved a practical failure, as the author in effect assures us. How any intelligent observer of the