The causes and treatment of lateral curvature of the spine / by Richard Barwell.

  • Barwell, Richard, 1827-1916
Date:
1868
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The causes and treatment of lateral curvature of the spine / by Richard Barwell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    ratory muscles, overaction of the right arm, uneven distribution of the weight of the trunk, the weight of the heart hanging on the dorsal, that of the liver on the lumbar spine—disease and deformation of vertebras and of inter- vertebral substance.* Now the difficulty with all these is as follows:—they none of them account, or indeed attempt to account, for rota- tion. If any one of these theories, except the over-action of right arm or weighting by heart and liver, were correct, the dorsal curvature must of necessity he as frequently to the left as to the right. The theory of over-use of the right arm, even were it for a moment tenable, should make the affection more usual in men than in women. The different weight- ing of the column by liver and heart should, if it were the efficient cause, render lateral curvature a constant and usual condition, equally common in both sexes. Thus, as we examine each and every of these theories, we * I believe every theory will be found to range itself within one or the other of these classes—over- weight of head being accepted as equal to debility, —Lack of nutrition as equivalent to disease.
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