The prevention of spinal deformities : especially of lateral curvatures, with notes on the causes, the artificial production & the injurious modes of treatment of these complaints / by Mathias Roth.

Mathias Roth

Date:: 1861

Credit: The prevention of spinal deformities : especially of lateral curvatures, with notes on the causes, the artificial production & the injurious modes of treatment of these complaints / by Mathias Roth. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$b any kind of medicine as yet employed. The statistics of the Stockholm and other Institutions abundantly prove, on the other hand, that this dreadful malady is frequently under control, and is, in many instances, radically cured by the mode of treatment I am advocating- Daily experience proves, that the fomation of the chest in consumptive people is, for the most part, such as would predis- pose to the development of the disorder; the slioulders are brought forwards, the anterior of the chest is contracted and flat, while the posterior surface is constantly found rounded and larger than the anterior,' and this mischief is brought about by the muscles not acting uniformly over the whole sui-face of the chest. It is self-evident that this state cannot be changed by the inter- nal administration of medicine, the use of mineral waters, or change of air alone. By the second and third class of move- ments, however, it is possible to strengthen such muscles, to re- move congestion of the blood, to restore, by degrees, the capacity of the chest to a healthy standard, and thus to bring the organs, particularly the limgs, to a condition in which they may perform their functions in a normal way. It may perhaps be objected to this assertion—^how is it, then, that common gymnastic exercises are foimd to be so often preju- dicial to consumptive patients ? But gymnastics, as now usually practised, embrace only active movements, which, by bringing into play the greater part of the muscles of the whole body, in- crease the circulation of the blood to an inordinate degree, and oblige the lungs to act more frequently than in the natural state, and thus obviously tend to hurry on the disease. 2. That class of diseases generally known as JfEEVOtrs De- BiLiTT, combined with disordered nutrition and irregular forma- tion of blood, as they appear frequently in young females, under the form of chlorosis ; too much or too little periodical secretions, nervousness, spasms, bad digestion, etc.,—all of which have been removed by this system of treatment, while medicine alone rarely contributes to their cure. 3. Headache, Co^gestiox to the Head, Coxstipatiojt, Con- gestion or THE LivEE, etc., accompanied with a state of weak- ness, are another class of aihnents from which many persons labour, they are oi\ly palliatively treated and only temporarily re-$