A probationary essay, on the causes and treatment of lateral curvature of the human spine; submitted ... to ... the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh / [Robert Knox].

  • Knox, Robert, 1791-1862.
Date:
1825
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A probationary essay, on the causes and treatment of lateral curvature of the human spine; submitted ... to ... the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh / [Robert Knox]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    4i Should the body remain erect, and the spine be not vitiated, yet the chest will become narrower, and hence will arise pulmonic disease, obstinate con¬ stipation, &c. But of all these evils, a scoliosis, or lateral curvature, is the most frequent, and that more to the right than to the left; so that of fifty persons, you shall scarcely find two who have not the right shoulder higher and more projecting than the left.” The spirit of observation which led Pinnjeus to remark on the excessive frequency of deformed spine, stimulated him also to inquire into its causes. It seems scarcely credible that so remarkable a part of the phenomenon, as the constancy with which the lateral curvature affects the right side, should have been viewed by writers of the present day as a cir¬ cumstance of no moment, and so little worth men¬ tioning, that they continue to talk of lateral curva¬ tures arising “ from indolence and bad habits,” as if all mechanics inclined during work towards the right side,—all literary men had adopted the same bad habit during the hours of study,—all females assumed the same position whilst engaged at needle¬ work,—all school-boys, whilst repeating their les¬ sons, or during the tedious and unnaturally prolong¬ ed school hours;—or is it because these writers, finding themselves unable to explain so remarkable