On the nature and treatment of the deformities of the human frame : being a course of lectures delivered at the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital in 1843 ; with numerous notes and additions to the present time / by W.J. Little.

  • William Little
Date:
1853
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the nature and treatment of the deformities of the human frame : being a course of lectures delivered at the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital in 1843 ; with numerous notes and additions to the present time / by W.J. Little. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

    396/446 (page 380)
    DISTORTIONS OTP THE SPINE. knows not whether most to admire the ingenuity which has enab ed the inventor to adapt his couch'to ev^ po Bible modification of distortion, and to fulfil on the one bed every mechanical indication> or tQ ]affient ^ Lte fl PrinCi^ With ^ -uTt of mezely influen g ^ iffiaginati(m and ^ confid the sufferer or her friends.* Besides extension-beds and extension-perpendicular-suspending frames, extension-' chairs have been employed; the patient undergoing per- pendicular elongation from the head whilst the pelvis reLd upon and was secured to a chair. Their effects may be classed with those of other active stretching apparatus. A ess formidable proceeding, much employed by some au- thors, has been that of causing the patient to take exercise upon common crutches only. By this means the lower part 01 the spinal column is relieved of the weight of the shoul- ders and arms, and is thereby straightened; but little benefit is exercised upon the more important dorsal curve. The influence of the weight of the head upon that part of the column which it especially and primarily influences, viz. the upper part, is not modified by this proceeding. Loco- motion upon crutches may, however, be advantageously practised in those cases of lateral curvature in which, whilst exercise in the open air is desirable, the laxity and flexibility of the column is so extreme, that every time the upright posture is exercised, the ligaments and muscles upon the convexities of the curves are injuriously elongated, whilst the intervertebral substances and bodies of vertebraa on the concave sides are compressed; and consequently the benefit derivable to the bodily health from out-door exer- cise is neutralised by the injury inflicted upon the vertebral structures. 5. Surgical division of contracted muscles. Racho-my- otomy has been extensively practised by some orthopaedic * See particularly the profusely illustrated work of Humbert.