Inequality in length of the lower limbs / by J.G. Garson.

  • Garson, J. G. (John George)
Date:
[1879]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Inequality in length of the lower limbs / by J.G. Garson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    By J. G. Garson, M.D. Ed., Anat. Assist. Royal College of Surgeons of England, Since Dr Wright of Brooklyn and Dr Cox of New York first pointed out that the lower extremities are very often unsym- metrical in length, this subject has received considerable atten- tion, especially from American surgeons. Dr Hamilton, whose name is well known in connection with fractures, at first doubted the accuracy of the statement, as to the limbs being generally of unequal length ; but subsequent observations led him and several other surgeons to concur in the opinion. According to their observations the lower limbs of the same individual may vary as much as 300 mm., and the inequality seldom if ever affects the person’s gait, being for the most part only observable when the limbs are compared with one another, or measured. The subject has also received attention in this country, as in the St Bartholomew’s Reports for 1878 Mr Callender has a paper upon it, in which he gives the measurements of the limbs of twenty-five persons. His experience is, however, contrary to that of American surgeons, as he only found two instances of a-symmetry in length in the twenty-five cases. Although not denying that it sometimes happens, he believes that much more extensive series of measurements are required, before it can be ac- cepted that the limbs are, as a rule, of unequal length. Measure- ments on the limbs of the living or dead subject are necessarily more or less inaccurate, from the difficulty of obtaining definite points from which to measure, as well as from the measurements being usually made with tapes, which are liable to vary. This is not the case, however, with the bones, as they can be measured tolerably exactly, and the length of the limbs ascertained; but, strange to say, Dr J. C. Roberts of Philadelphia is the only one that, up to this time, as far as I know, has published any observa- tions upon them. Dr Roberts, in a paper published in the Phila- delphia Medical Times of the 3d August 1878, gives the measure- ments of eight skeletons. In them he found only one instance where the limbs were equal in length. General conclusions cannot,