Spinal curvature and awkward deportment : their causes and prevention in children / by Dr. Georg Müller ; english edition edited and adapted by Richard Greene.

  • Müller, Georg, 1861-
Date:
1894
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Spinal curvature and awkward deportment : their causes and prevention in children / by Dr. Georg Müller ; english edition edited and adapted by Richard Greene. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    aged to indulge in these sports too long without resting. When we come to the important matter of dress we are no whit better than our neighbours ; probably we are rather worse. My own observation would lead me to believe that in the streets of our towns, and. even in our country lanes, would be seen a higher proportion of pinched waists and high-heeled boots than would be met with in Germany. It is no excuse to say that our grandmothers paid similar homage to fashion, and yet brought up healthy chil- dren. Perhaps they did, and diseased ones, also! Anyway, I think Professor Muller is right in showing the connection between fashion and deformity. In the last chapter of the book reference is made to the value of the dance as a means of recreation and development, and as the author praises the open- air dancing of Ancient Greece we must all agree with him, for every movement of these dances was graceful, and every posture charmed. But what can be said of that senseless rotatory embrace, now by courtesy termed dancing, which takes place in crowded, artificially-lighted rooms, and which begins at a time of day, or rather night, long after it should have ended ? Could not some leader of fashion put an end to this by introducing something more hygienic and more rational ? Manifestly the book is intended for parents rather than for physicians. It will aid the former in steer- ing clear of the primary causes of these spinal de- formities, and in obtaining knowledge sufficient to detect slight deviations from the normal, at a stage, too, when treatment may be efficacious. Every parent ought to be to this extent a physician. Richard Greene.