Orthopaedia or a practical treatise on the aberrations of the human form / by James Knight.

  • Knight, James, 1810-1887.
Date:
1874
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Orthopaedia or a practical treatise on the aberrations of the human form / by James Knight. 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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    before any other part of the body, that congenital malformations or anomalies depend upon the imperfections, or the want of certain portions of the nervous system, and that they control the develop- ment of the embryo to the determining of the form and disposition of the organs; hence, deformities have their first cause in the irreg- ular development of this system. The absence or impairment of nervous centres having been con- sidered by Guerin as a cause of total deformity, this gentleman presented supposed evidence to sustain this opinion ; and read a paper before the Academy of Science, Paris, presenting specimens of monstrosities having the attendant contortion of the limbs. He asserted that there was always to be observed a perfect relation between the absence of the nervous centres (or a portion of them, the result of which is muscular contraction) and that of dislocating the joints in the foetus. This noted Orthopaedist premises his argu- ment in favor of this theory by the following remarks : The observation of certain monstrosities presents to us, in a striking manner, the combination of these four orders of facts, namely: that in them may be observed at the same time, a material lesion of the nervous centres, the retraction of the totality, or of the greater portion of the muscular system and of concomitant luxations, a vigorous relation between the seat, the extent, and the degree of the nervous lesion, and the seat, extent, and degree of retraction; and, finally, a relation of direction, of extent, and of degree between the retraction and the dislocation which it produces. For illustration, he presented an anencephalus, in which there was not only contraction of all of the muscles, producing curvature of the spine, but actual dislocations of the joints. He further asserted that, under certain circumstances, an arrest of development is the result of this deficiency in the nervous centres. As the perfection of the nervous centres is essential to the perfect formation of the foetus, we must infer that some pathological change had taken place at an early period of gestation to the impairment and destruction of the nervous centres; hence, an arrest of devel- opment and contortion are the results of abnormal nervous energy. As an aid to the adequate consideration of this subject, of so much interest to all, we have introduced several engravings repre- senting deformed children; two of them laboring under various congenital malformations, and now living subjects, and one simi-