A practical manual of the treatment of club-foot / by Lewis A. Sayre.

  • Lewis Sayre
Date:
1869
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A practical manual of the treatment of club-foot / by Lewis A. Sayre. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    terial blood sent to the part, and the obstruction of the return of the venous blood, caused by the mal- position of the vessels of the foot. A hose will carry water a given distance with a certain force applied, when the tube is straight and unobstructed; but the same hose, with the same amount of force, will carry the water a much shorter distance if the tube be bent at an acute angle, and particularly if these angles be increased in number. So an arte- ry, supplying any part, will do it better when in its natural position than it can do when bent around a bone, or bent upon itself, which partially closes its calibre, and by abnormal pressure diminishes the amount of blood flowing through it, within a given space of time. The veins also, by this distorted position, are prevented from returning the blood as freely as natural, thus causing all deformed feet to present the blue and cold appearance spoken of above as so characteristic of them, which is the re- sult of venous congestion. Moreover, when the disease is allowed to con- tinue till adult life, an actual deformity of the bones of the tarsus occurs. ]^ot only is the normal relative position of the bones changed, but the long- continued pressure in the new position brings about, eventually, a change in their articular facets. The weight of the body upon these deformed feet ag-