The Causes and Treatment of Lateral Curvature of the Spine (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: LATERAL FLEXIBILITY. was directed to bend the spine to the right as much as she could without strain. On the photograph of this position the transverse axis of the pelvis was drawn, and a line at right angles to it marks the straight position of the spine: the curve from the top of the sacrum to the vertebra prominens was then measured; its length was 13'5 lines; the radial distance (we will suppose the curve circular) amounted to twelve lines. On the body of the patient, the length of the spine itself was eighteen inches, therefore the radius of curve measured sixteen inches. The dorsal and lumbar spine, then, in ordinary individuals, and without exertion, can bend laterally in a curve whose radial distance is eight-ninths of its own length. The curve, however, is not quite circular; the greatest amount of bend takes place between the seventh and tenth dorsal vertebrae. I also wished to study the conditions under which the spine was placed in different actions of the limbs and body. I therefore procured a number of persons, chiefly artists' models, to go through various movements with the back naked. It does not seem advisable to transcribe here my voluminous notes of these experiments. Suffice it to say that in walking, sitting down, and rising again, and lifting even small weights, the spine bends from side to side. As might be expected, motions of the arms and shoulders influence chiefly the upper part; movements of the lower limbs, especially if the pelvis itself move, chiefly the lower part, of the spine. The former move- INFLUENCE OF LIMB-MOTION. 1'J ments only affect the column when either powerful or prolonged: for instance, a pound weight may be held in the hand outstretched without influencing the spine for a certain time, but when fatigue commences ...