The mechanical treatment of angular curvature or, Pott's disease of the spine : read before the New York State Medical Society, at its fifty sixth annual meeting, at Albany, Feb. 3d, 4th, and 5th, 1863, and printed in the Society's transactions / by Charles Fayette Taylor.

  • Taylor, Charles Fayette, 1827-1899.
Date:
[1863]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The mechanical treatment of angular curvature or, Pott's disease of the spine : read before the New York State Medical Society, at its fifty sixth annual meeting, at Albany, Feb. 3d, 4th, and 5th, 1863, and printed in the Society's transactions / by Charles Fayette Taylor. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    disease; before as well as after a curvature is visible. In my own practice, I never examine the back till I have caused the patient to walk across the room, pick up my knife and keys, and climb upon and get down from a bench or chair. Having done this, taken in connection with the mother's answers to my questions, I have made my diagnosis. Examination of the back reveals very little besides the extent of the deformity, if one exists, and measurements for an instrument. And we should always bear in mind, when this disease is suspected, that to wait for the projec- tion to appear is to wait for the destruction of the vertebrae. It is to throw away the golden moment for arresting the disease in its incipiency. We must remember that the curvature is the re- sult of the disease and not the disease itself. If I dwell at some length on this matter of diagnosis, it is because I am daily witness of the sad effects of letting the disease run on month after month and sometimes year after year; the physician patiently waiting for the curvature to take place in order to satisfy himself that the patient really has the disease. Meantime, more and more of the vertebrae become diseased ; the constitution becomes completely involved; ab-