Much Broken Humanity

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 179, 20 November 1886, Page 1

Much Broken Humanity

It is eaid of a once famous hard rider to hounds that he had broken every large bone in his body at one time or another, but seemed none the worse for it. That renowned Nimrod eventually died in bis bed, at a good old age, and we trust the same fate may attend an aged inmate of the Holbeach workhouse who, like the worthy squire, eeems to thrive on fractured bones. The guardians have just allowed him to have a nurse to attend on him, pending his recovery from a broken thigh. This ia the sixth time that he has suffered that particular accident, while hie record also includes two dislocations of the elbow, several fractures of the collar-bone, besides minor disarrangements of his frame. Yet he continues in robust health and excellent spirits, although he numbers 92 years, and has passed a life of hard toil and of many privations. It might be erroneous, however, to deduce from this that broken bonea are conducive to longevity. More tenable is the theory that the anatomical Btructure of some human beings is of an abnormal nature, admitting of dislocations and fractures taking place constantly without much detriment to health. The very fact that this old boy has br< \en his thighs half-a-dozen tim°s suggests that the bones in that part of bis body must be particularly fragile, and also very susceptible of being mended. Here is a promising subject for a paper to be read at the next meeting of the British Association. If given a sufficiently incomprehensible title, it could not fail to interest the audience.