Curvatures of the spine / by Noble Smith.

  • Smith, E. Noble (Eldred Noble), 1847-1906.
Date:
1896
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Curvatures of the spine / by Noble Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    allowed to interfere, and treatment was deferred. In six months' time the child was again brought to me, and so rapid had been the progress of deformity, that a very severe g-shaped curve had developed. Each curve was two inches from the median perpendicular line of the back, so that if parallel vertical lines had been drawn through the apex of each, these lines would have been four inches apart. A cure was now out of the question, although by treatment the deformity was lessened. The next practical point for consideration is the question, ' Are the means at our disposal so effective that treatment is worth the trouble and expense ?' If treatment necessarily involved considerable interference with the liberty of the patient, or the wearing of a heavy instru- ment interfering with muscular action, or any other similarly objectionable procedure, then such a question would be worth considering. But as the cure, or the retardation of the curva- ture, can be satisfactorily accomplished without enforced recum- bency,' without the application of any apparatus which will inter- fere with the development of the body or use of the muscles, without using extension machines, and without any painful or irksome methods, there ought not to be any doubt that treatment should be carried out in every case without delay. As to the possibility of a case getting well by itself, such a result is so unhkely that it can hardly be wise to trust to it. In dealing with a case of curvature we have in the first place to decide as to its immediate cause; i.e. the cause which has to be counteracted. For instance, one leg may be shorter than the other, a condition which, although only acting when the patient is erect, yet undoubtedly has a powerful influence upon the spine. I have met with cases in which the pelvis also on one side has been small, under which circumstances the influence acted when the patient was sitting as well as when erect. Girls, especially when weakly, often get into the habit of sidling themselves into a chair in such a manner that the left lumbar region is made to project to the left, and as it is upon ' Exceptional cases occur in which the bones are so soft and the liga- ments so lax that recumbency is necessary.