54. When the head of the femur is dislocated outward, the limb in these cases, when compared with the other, appears shortened, and this is natural, for the head of the femur no longer rests on a bone as in dislocation inward, but along the side of a bone which naturally inclines to the side, and it is lodged in flesh of a pulpy and yielding nature, and on that account it appears more shortened.
Inwardly, the thigh about the perineum appears more hollow and flabby, but externally the buttock is more rounded, from the head of the thigh having slipped outward, but the nates appear to be raised up, owing to the flesh there having yielded to the head of the thigh-bone; but the extremity of the thigh-bone, at the knee, appears to be turned inward, and the leg and foot in like manner, neither does it admit of flexion like the sound limb. These, then, are the symptoms of dislocation outward.
