Localized movements, or, Muscular exercises, combined with mechanical appliances, for the treatment of spinal curvature and other deformities / by Henry Heather Bigg.
- Bigg, Heather (Henry Robert Heather), 1853-1911.
- Date:
- 1859
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Localized movements, or, Muscular exercises, combined with mechanical appliances, for the treatment of spinal curvature and other deformities / by Henry Heather Bigg. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![]5 organs of tlie animal frame, and it is upon a know- ledge of their construction and action that I parti- cularly base my ideas as to the possibility of so com- bining external mechanism, as to render the actions of certain muscles subservient to the direction of the manipulator. It is to the muscles that we owe the symmetry of form which is so highly prized. They likewise defend the joints and clothe the bones; whilst in the body they constitute a substance capable of yielding to any internal pressure, and of then returning to its original form. When it is known that muscles are composed of an immense number of parallel fibres held together by areolar tissue, their aggregate action in given directions becomes immediately intelligible. Their mode of influencing the various bones to which they are attached is by their contractility,—a quality which is capable of being excited at discretion. Hence it is most important to know the precise direction taken by a muscle, when changed in its position by deformity, as well as to make ourselves conversant with its cus- tomary action during symmetric movements. When I first began to examine the various muscles of the spine, with a view to ascertain the influence which they severally exerted, I soon perceived that some system must be devised for finding their aggregate action; because unless this action could be determined with accuracy, very little good would result from tlj£ employment of exercises.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b20419636_0025.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
