Spinal debility, its prevention, pathology and cure, in relation to curvatures, paralysis, epilepsy, and various deformities / by Edward W. Tuson.

Date:
1861
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Spinal debility, its prevention, pathology and cure, in relation to curvatures, paralysis, epilepsy, and various deformities / by Edward W. Tuson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    many of which were under my own care at the Middlesex Hospital, and many in private practice. This induced me to publish the result of such experience in 1841. But twenty years having elapsed, and much additional knowledge and infor- mation having been acquired during that time, by a careful investigation of a number of cases that have fallen under treatment, I presume to offer to the public the result of my additional experience. First, I would state, that after mature considera- tion, much experience, and numerous opportunities of making examination of facts, I have come to the full conviction that, in almost all cases of curvature of the spine, either laterally or anteriorly, and in some of the cases posteriorly, the condition of the vertebrae is in a softened state, somewhat like sponge, and that the bony ring which surrounds the body of these bones, is not sufficiently strong to support the weight placed upon them, from a want of due deposit of phosphate of lime or earthy matter, so as properly to ossify them, and produce their natural structure and development. When such a condition of the spinal column exists, the increased action of one set of muscles, or the weight of the other parts of the frame being thrown upon the vertebral column, causes its natural position to be so altered and deranged as to produce a curvature in a lateral direction, when the right scapula is discovered to project with an accompanying projection on the left side of the front part of the chest. But this tendency arises from the softened