Spinal curvature : comprising a description of the various types of curvature of the spine : with the mechanical appliances best suited for their treatment / by R. Heather Bigg.

Date:
1882
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Spinal curvature : comprising a description of the various types of curvature of the spine : with the mechanical appliances best suited for their treatment / by R. Heather Bigg. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    under the arm, and which curls round to appear in front and terminate in a plate, pressing against the top of the shoulder and holding this latter back. These are termed arm-pieces. Lastly, the appliance is completed by an elastic belt, which surrounds the lower abdomen and is fastened to the back bands in the loins, thus holding the back bands closely to the spine and supporting the abdominal walls. The use and intention of the entire appliance is to give the aid lately mentioned. In doing this the back bands play the principal part, the other portions being rather holds than agents, although they have subsidiary intents of their own. The arm-pieces help the muscles of the scapula to hold the shoulders back as well as to control the level of the shoulders, the belt aids the muscles of the abdominal walls, and the pelvic circlet can be at pleasure modified to control the angle] of the pelvis and, by this means, uterine malpositions. These uses are, however, secondary somewhat to that of keeping the back bands in apposition to the spine. The back bands and the sjDine are thus as nearly as can be one, and the spine being deficient in certain muscular power the spring back bands are set to supply by their force the deficit, and the spinal muscles are aided to aid themselves, as explained. The whole appli- ance is at sword temper, supple, and pliant. As the body bends it bends. It fits with such closeness as to be undetected by sight, and even by casual touch, for since its hard parts come in the position of hard parts of the body its presence is unsuspected. The manner in which the appliance acts is further explained diagramatically when the two figs. (4 and 5) are contrasted. In Fig. 4 the appliance has merely The adjoining figures show the application of the appliance for the first and second stage of the general musculo-nervous type of curvature. Fig. 4 represents the atonic body before the appliance is brought into action. Fig. 5 shows the change produced by the spring action of the appliance when in situ. Figs. 6 and 7 exhibit the front and back views of the appliance when on, and show how it is that it is absolutely imperceptible beneath the clothing.