On our change of opinion about fracture healing and callus formation

Although the treatment of fractures has repeatedly been documented throughout history, little attention has been paid to the historical development of the understanding of fracture healing and callus formation in itself. In antiquity, the capability of bone to regenerate was doubted, and Galen attributed the consolidation of a bone fracture to a sap (succus ossificus) that came from the food ingested. Later, in the eighteenth century, a haughty...