An essay on the general principles of the treatment of spinal curvatures / by Heather Bigg.

  • Bigg, Henry Robert Heather, 1853-1911.
Date:
1905
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: An essay on the general principles of the treatment of spinal curvatures / by Heather Bigg. 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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    for tlie purposes of straigliteniiig, tlie procedure seems so much a matter of common sense that tlie mind does not stop to analyse tlie mechanical principles involved, any more than an ordinary workman, in lifting a heavy weight with a crowbar, pauses to think whether he is using a lever of the first, or of the second, or of the third order. Still, notwithstanding this, the mechanical principles are there. Only in simple matters they are disregarded, and are very often, as in the case of the workman, unknown. But such disregard, which is immaterial in the use of a crowbar, would be impos- sible in the complicated construction of a steam-engine. And, similarly, whilst no theoretical explanations of principle seem required in the use of a common tibial splint, they are nevertheless very necessary in explain- ing the construction of the more complicated appliances that are of service in curing cases of lateral curvature. And yet in both the simple and the compHcated appli- ances the same precise principles are involved. But as it is my purpose to start from what is quite obviously simple in order to make clear what is less so, I will, before going to the subject of the spine, analyse the mechanical principles that underlie the use of so ordinary an appliance as a tibial splint. This, probably the simplest instance of an active appliance, consists of a plain straight piece of wood and a roller bandage. It is true that some kind of padding is invariably placed between the splint and the limb to which it is applied, in order to safeguard the skin from injury ; but this padding is of no more theoretical con- sequence than whether the piece of wood itself is painted or polished or covered with leather. The piece of wood, which is of sufficient length, is placed against the inside of the knee and the inner ankle—that is
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