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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    The three superior regions of the spine, equal, in general, about a third of the total height of the body ; and the most ordinary dimensions for the length of its regions are, 5.9056 inches for the cer¬ vical, 11.810 for the dorsal, and 6.2993 for the lumbar. Common observation shews, that the pro¬ portions of the spine to the total height of the body vary exceedingly ; in some the lower extremities and neck are disproportioned to the trunk, and this may happen to a great extent short of actual deformity ; in others the spine is of great length, and such per¬ sons are remarked as sitting much higher than others, who in total height may yet greatly exceed them. I am inclined to think, that these diffe¬ rences depend on the vast admixture of nations and races which European society presents ; for it does not prevail to the same extent amongst pure and unmixed savage tribes. Historians, if my memory fail not, describe the savage hordes which overthrew the Roman Empire, and plunged Europe into pro¬ found barbarism for so many centuries, as being composed of a race whose chief peculiarity, next to a hideous Tartaric physiognomy, was a dispropor¬ tionate length of the spine to the extremities, so that “ what the limbs were deficient in as to length, was made up by that of the body.”