The orthopragms of the spine : an essay on the curative mechanisms applicable to spinal curvature exemplied by a typical collection lately presented to the Parkes' Museum of Hygiene, University College, London / by Robert Heather Bigg.

  • Bigg, Robert Heather.
Date:
1880
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The orthopragms of the spine : an essay on the curative mechanisms applicable to spinal curvature exemplied by a typical collection lately presented to the Parkes' Museum of Hygiene, University College, London / by Robert 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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    surroundings. It was previously stated that the natural spinal curves were traceable in structure to the exigencies of motion, and this is true develop- mentally ; it is none the less true, however, that their maintenance is due to the restituent tendency described. Nature provides for construction on a certain plan in one way, for its continuance and integrity in another. In a similar way, for all unnatural circumstances, there is an ideal unnatural curvature, which the spine tends to adopt as the most facile for fulfilling its function ; and this tendency, modified as it may be by the structure—the bricks and mortar, so to speak—of the spine, will never cease till the real curve is iden- tical with the ideal. Further, not only is the restituent tendency inherent in the spine as a whole, but, as will be later seen, exists in any part of the spine in relation to the other parts. This point clear, spinal curvature can be classified in accordance with its mechanical origin rather than by reference to its position, direction, or constitutional cause. I. Curvature of Extrinsic Origin may arise from a multiplicity of causes, inasmuch as while the spine itself is in every way mechanically healthy, its circum- stances may be indefinitely varied. Below the spine the elements of the three arches may become subjects of irregularity; weakness at the insteps of the feet, deviation from truth of the relative axes of the ankle, knee, or hip, through accident, paralysis, contraction, or arrested development; disturbance of the stability