An essay on curvatures and diseases of the spine, including all the forms of spinal distortion: to which the Fothergillian Gold Medal was awarded by the Medical Society of London and presented, at a special meeting, on the 3rd of May, 1824: with some additions / By R.W. Bampfield.

  • Bampfield, R. W. (Robert William), -1827.
Date:
1824
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An essay on curvatures and diseases of the spine, including all the forms of spinal distortion: to which the Fothergillian Gold Medal was awarded by the Medical Society of London and presented, at a special meeting, on the 3rd of May, 1824: with some additions / By R.W. Bampfield. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    little through the whole progress of the. disease; but where scrofulous caries is the cause of the curvature, the inclination to move about very frequently for- sakes them, and they sit in a chair, listless, languid, often asthmatic, or affected with dyspnoea, and en- deavour to take off the superincumbent weight of the head, by placing the elbows on the table before them, or on the arms of their chair, and lodging their lower jaw on the thumbs (as on a crutch) extended across it, with the fingers directed up to the sides of the face or ears. If the patient be confined to the hori- zontal posture, more especially the facial, when the excurvation is in the incipient stage, no permanent or perpetual curvature will ensue, provided its use be persevered in, until the dorsal muscles have recovered their energy, or the disposition to inflammation and scrofulous action of the vertebrae be removed. Should the patient incautiously continue to sit up and walk about, a curvature of the spine ensues and gradually increases: the first appearance of projection has been described, and in a short time after, one, two, or three spinous processes of the dorsal vertebree may be ob- served to project beyond the spinal line a quarter or half of an inch; after this the spinous processes of the vertebre above and below those previously pro- jecting successively protrude, until many or the whole of the dorsal vertebrae form a curve, and are project- ing backwards beyond the spinal line from an. inch to even two inches, the chord line of which does not admeasure much more than one half of the length the vertebree of their natural dimensions and breadth would occupy. The lower cervical vertebre natur-