A letter addressed to Sir Benjamin C. Brodie, bart. : containing observations and strictures upon certain parts of his lecture on spinal complaints, delivered to the young gentlemen of St. George's Hospital / by Edward Harrison.

  • Harrison, Edward, 1759-1838.
Date:
1836
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A letter addressed to Sir Benjamin C. Brodie, bart. : containing observations and strictures upon certain parts of his lecture on spinal complaints, delivered to the young gentlemen of St. George's Hospital / by Edward Harrison. 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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    without reserve. If others are encouraged, by experience, to enter- tain a difl’erent opinion, let them come forward openly and proclaim the reasons for their dissent. The truth will ultimately triumph, and the sooner the more agreeable to me. Your total silence on these interesting questions inclines me to believe, that your own experience has brought you to entertain similar sentiments to those for which I am an advocate. Both the above-described plans having been fully tried, and having entirely failed, the chief object ot this letter is to recommend another, which has been eminently successful with me, and promises to supersede all the rest. The medical indication set forth in it is drawn from anatomy. Finding the backbone misshapen in every spinal deformity, I direct my whole attention to the affected vertebraD, and with perfect success. In recent cases the contortions are soon removed ; in old ones they require longer attendance, but relief is afibrded to all. As the dis- tortions abate, not only is the figure rendered more graceful, but the health benefits. Nor ought this to create surprise, the vertebral column is the pillar of support to all the internal organs, and their displacement must follow its aberrations. Change of position in any of the viscera, be the change ever so small, will naturally interfere with its peculiar functions. The secretions will be modified, and the products less perfectly eliminated. Hence, bad health is the natural and immediate consequence. In illustration, any of the larger viscera may be referred to : the lungs, for example, placed in tbe thorax, protected from external harm by a bony covering. The most delicate and important oflices of life are performed by them. They are in constant motion, and effect a great change in the properties of the blood. It approaches the lungs of a dull hue, and acquires in them a vermilion brightness. So necessary are these changes, that a short interruption of the respiration leads to certain death. Where the complete suspension is so injurious, any derangement in the func- tion will be prejudicial to health. In distortions of the superior ver- tebra;, the figure of the backbone and ribs is always altered. 1st. It has been admitted, from the earliest antiquity, that when the chest labours under any malformation, the source of mischief can be readily traced to the malformation acting on its delicate contents, and thus the medical practitioner is prepared to meet the examples so frequently occurring in practice. Hippocrates’* and Aretasusf have recorded, that the consumptive diathesis is associated with a narrow chest, with shoulders projecting or jutting out like the wings of birds. Aretaeus further observes, that the dorsal spine is often unusually protuberant, which he imputes to muscular extenuation. Since my attention has been particularly drawn to the mischievous effects of spinal deformities, I have frequently remarked in phthisical habits, the peculiarities alluded to by Hippocrates and Aretmus. On a • Epidem, v. p. 1142. f Aretaj'i Cappadocis de causis et signis niorborum diuturnorum Lib. prim, caput octavum de Pluhisi.