Pott's disease : its pathology and mechanical treatment, with remarks on rotary lateral curvature / by Newton M. Shaffer.

  • Shaffer, Newton M. (Newton Melman), 1846-1928.
Date:
1879
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Pott's disease : its pathology and mechanical treatment, with remarks on rotary lateral curvature / by Newton M. Shaffer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    measure, for the readiness with which parents and nurses assign a traumatic origin to the disease.^ I have never had an opportunity to examine, post-mortem, the pathological condition of a vertebral column in the stage alluded to in the first paragraph of this paper, viz., before the appearance of deformity/ Even if such examinations were on record, it would require accurate microscopic descriptions of many cases to establish facts regarding the changes which primarily occur, and their most frequent seat. We have Barwell's conclusions f as to the condition of the joint ends in strumous children, which are, I believe, generally accepted as correct. In the absence, among the authors I have consulted, of other important facts bearing upon this point, and l)ksed upon actual and very early pathological exploration, I propose, with the aid I have derived from them and from my own experience, both pathological and clinical, to consider the lesion from these standpoints. Pott's disease, or chronic spondylitis, as I have preferred to call it, may be divided into four stages. T\\.^ first (the one before alluded to) may be very ill-defined, and easily escape the notice of the careless observer. I saw a case recently, for example, where the mother was certain that the first symptom she noticed was a pain in the back. This was a few days ago. The appearance of the child * Guersant {Surgical Diseases of Children, Dunglison's Translation, 1873, page 107,) says, An important observation we may make is, that traumatic arthritis, properly treated, rarely passes into a chronic condition, a fact which we have had many opportunities to verify, although often fear- ing to the contrary. The cure is assured if the patients are not predisposed to a scrofulous constitution. \ Barwell on Diseases of the Joints, American edition, page 227.