A memoir on the congenital club feet of children : and on the mode of correcting that deformity / by Antonio Scarpa ; translated from the Italian by J.H. Wishart ; with five original engravings by Anderloni.

  • Scarpa, Antonio
Date:
1808
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A memoir on the congenital club feet of children : and on the mode of correcting that deformity / by Antonio Scarpa ; translated from the Italian by J.H. Wishart ; with five original engravings by Anderloni. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

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    The toes are not arranged horizontally, but rather in a vertical line to the sole of the foot. The external margin of the foot, on which the whole weight of the body gravi- tates, is of a semicircular shape, and a certain portion of it * is covered by a hardness or callosity, under which is felt, deep-seated, an yielding elastic substance. In consequence of the situation of the heel, the tendo Achillis is carried obliquely from the outer to the inner side of the leg, and is in a state of permanent tension. Children so much deform- ed in their feet from birth, cannot walk but with great diffi- culty, and only by raising and carrying one foot before the other in a semicircular direction. When they raise one foot, they are in danger of falling forwards or backwards, because the line of direction of the whole body, which gra- vitates on the foot resting on the ground, does not, in them, fall directly on the top of the tarsus, but on the place where there is no posterior projection of the heel, as in the natural state, or it falls to the outer part of the externa] malleolus. They totter still more, if one of their knees is turned a little inwards or outwards, which complication of deformity is sometimes conjoined with that of the feet. § 5. In very young children, we do not find any diffi- culty in turning the feet in a contrary direction to the de- formity, simply employing the hand, and without occasion- ing them any pain. On the first attempt which is made to