Lectures on the pathology and treatment of lateral and other forms of curvature of the spine.

  • Adams, William, 1820-1900.
Date:
1865
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Lectures on the pathology and treatment of lateral and other forms of curvature of the spine. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    at present not often used in England as a system to the exclusion of other means. 2nd. The system of muscular exercises, or gymnastics, employed in a great variety of ways, and upon principles variously modified, according to the opinions and theories of its professors, from the old-fashioned drill-master, and the professed athletic gymnast, with his ladder-climbing, hand-swing, pole-jumping, &c, to the refinements of Kinesi- pathy and the Swedish system of gymnastics, whose pro- fessors pretend to cure deformities, and chronic diseases of all kinds, by movements, according to the method of Ling.* 3rd. The system of cutting the spinal muscles, a method of modern origin, based upon the idea that spinal curva- ture is produced by the active contraction of some of the spinal muscles, in the same way that club-foot, wry-neck, and various contractions of the limbs, are known to be frequently caused. This system is associated with the name of M. Jules Guerin,f as its founder, and has been extensively adopted by the professor and his disciples in Trance and elsewhere, but is now falling rapidly and deservedly into disrepute. It has been tried by my col- leagues and myself, as well as by other surgeons in England, but without success. 4th. The system of mechanical extension, employed both in the erect and the recumbent positions, by a variety of means worthy only of being classed with the methods of * This system will be further alluded to in another Lecture, but for a general and very clever review of several books written on the subject by its Professors, the reader is referred to the British and Foreign Medico- CMrurgical Review, Vol. x, 1852, page 31. f Premier Memoire sur le Traitement des Deviations de l'Epine par la Section des Muscles du Dos, par Dr. Jules Guerin. Paris, 1843.