The first report of the Society for the Treatment and Attendance of Poor Persons Afflicted with Diseases and Distortions of the Spine, Chest, Hips, &c.

  • Verral Charitable Society (London, England)
Date:
1838
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The first report of the Society for the Treatment and Attendance of Poor Persons Afflicted with Diseases and Distortions of the Spine, Chest, Hips, &c. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    his strength, and his appetite, and ceased to complain of headache and vertigo. He is now perfectly erect, the curvature is reduced to a small protrusion, formed by two or three anchylosed bones, but which is not visible when he is dressed, and the turn towards the right side has entirely disappeared. Of Paralysis, partial or complete, of the lower extremities, connected with disease and distortion of the spine, there are several cases to record. George Smallman, aged three years, had a considerable rounded, but not angular, pro- trusion of the dorsal vertebrae, and the lower limbs were completely paralyzed. The bones had not yet come into contact, and, consequently, anchylosis could not have taken place. A few months of confinement to the prone couch, accom- panied by some pressure, friction, &c., has completely removed both the curva- ture and the paralysis. John Tarrant's is a similar case, and promises the same favourable result, although it has not so rapidly advanced towards a cure, in consequence chiefly of the general ill health of the patient. In several cases the paralysis has been completely cured, although the curvatures are not alto- gether removed. Sarah Ann Mills, Robert Toll, Alfred Lipscombe, and Maria Blegborough, are instances of this. The cure of the latter, however, is as nearly as possible complete. At the age of eleven she was received as a patient on the 6th of February, 1837, on the nomination of Miss Curie of Ranelagh Place, Pimlico, to whose honour it may be said, that, not satisfied with subscribing on her account to the funds of the society, she took her from the poor and desolate home of her mother and received her into her own House, that she might be the better nursed and fed, and the treatment be more perseveringly attended to. So favoured, the child most rapidly improved in health and strength, and from a poor, emaciated, feeble object, bent almost double, and incapable of walking without support, she is now a plump, strong, healthy girl, capable of great exertion, walking perfectly upright, and the spine straight, excepting a slight protrusion of two of the vertebrae of the loins, which are evidently anchylosed. Rachel Chandler's was a case of paralysis, accompanied by a slight rounded curvature of the dorsal vertebrae. At the age of two years and a half she was utterly incapable of using her legs. She was deriving some benefit from the kind attentions of Dr. Smith, of Reading, who recommended a trial of the prone position. In a few weeks she was enabled to walk with a little support, and she has now thrown away the couch; walking about firmly without assistance, and with the spine perfectly straight. The case of Alfred Lipscombe was somewhat similar, but his spine was much more curved, and showed, by a slight angle in the middle of the back, that two of the bones had most probably united. This little boy, who has been a most cheerful and tractable patient, has had hooping cough since he has been lying on his couch, and went through the disease remarkably well. His mother states that, during the jits of coughing, the position appeared to be a great comfort to him, and was a great relief to herself, as he suffered less from the paroxysms and required less assistance than her other children. It will be well here to remark, that in several other cases in which there has been hooping cough, the same observations have been made in favour of the position : and when it is considered how frequently distortion of the spine is caused or has been aggravated by that disease, it adds greatly to the credit of the present method of treatment. Of disease and distortion of the spine, with abscess, the cases are very numer- ous. They are, of course, amongst the most formidable and the least capable of cure. The treatment, nevertheless, has often been eminently successful. The pro- gress of distortion, and with it the extension of disease which had previously been proceeding with rapidity, has usually been arrested at once, and the existing de- formity has been in most instances diminished, although no considerable stretching of the parts has been allowed, lest it should prevent anchylosis, which is considered to be the only means of cure in a carious state of the bones. The more perfect rest afforded by the prone position, its sudden arrestation of the progress of the local disease, together with the improvement of health which almost invariably accom- panies its use, have generally contributed to the diminution of the discharge, and often to the perfect healing of the abscess. In the case of Thomas Davies, whose unfortunate termination has already been recorded, that most favourable event had taken place. It has taken place also in Elizabeth Bainbridgc, in Adelaide White, in Richard Bowen, and nearly so in Alexander Lundic. In these cases a perfect