Remarks on an additional means of treating lateral curvature of the spine. The invention of Drs. Brown, Boston, U.S. / by W. J. Little.

Date:
1848
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Remarks on an additional means of treating lateral curvature of the spine. The invention of Drs. Brown, Boston, U.S. / by W. J. Little. 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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    spinal lateral curvature could always be conducted tuto, cito, et jucunde. The active and adequate treatment of mode- rately severe cases is incompatible with large intercourse with society. During the years in which the greatest amount of success is obtainable, withdrawal from all but the family circle is not difficult. As a set-off to any objec- tion entertained from the appearance of the patient wearing the lever, the reader may be reminded that the Horizontal Lever-Belt requires only to be employed during the hours devoted to exercise, and should be regarded as subsidiary to other modes of treatment. A considerable portion of the patient’s time should be passed in the horizontal pos- ture, either in the prone, recumbent, or lateral positions, according to the circumstances of the case. Numerous gentle and varied exercises may be employed, partly on account of their beneficial influence upon the frame in general, and partly from their tendency to develop struc- tures that have fallen into disuse. In this manner, any thing approaching to a tedious, unsightly routine of duties may be avoided. Whilst briefly alluding to various portions of the plan of treatment of lateral curvature, I may advert to the in- dispensable necessity, in many cases, of resorting to means of improving the health of the patient, some of these being directed to the regulation of the digestive and cutaneous organs; others to the invigoration of the nervous and cir- culating systems, whilst the catamenial functions, being often irregularly performed or absent, require a share of the practitioner’s attention. Lateral curvature of the spine is essentially a chronic affection ; its progress, — from the slightest want of corre- spondence of the hips or shoulders, and an amount of devi- ation of the spinal column imperceptible to the ordinary eye, to that stage in which one shoulder and subjacent ribs form
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