A NEW TEST FOR CLINICAL UNION OF THE FRACTURED SHAFT OF FEMUR

jects into the human body is well known to surgeons. In times of war and after terrorist activities, it is not uncom-mon to find bullets, nails, shrapnel, wood and clothing carried into wounds. However, the introduction ofa part ofone human being into another by accident is extremely rare. Ziperman and McGinty (1964) and Lynch (1980) reported cases in which a pedestrian struck by a car and sustaining a compound injury to the lower limb had been thrown against another pedestrian: the exposed bone acted as a “weapon”, stabbing the second person and leaving behind fragments of bone. Even more remarkable is the case described by Kir-kup (1965) ofa motorcyclist who, admitted after an acci-dent, had nine inches of his femoral shaft missing. A search was unavailing until some 24 hours after the acci-dent when “a police dog quickly discovered the bone in a I Cyclist A hedge”. Once the thigh had healed the piece of bone was autoclaved and reinserted, apparently with success. Whether in our case we might have employed this tech-nique is an open question. What is undeniable is that, in any high-speed collision between two individuals, the possibility that bone has been transferred from one to the other should be borne in mind