Remarks on an additional means of treating lateral curvature of the spine. The invention of Drs. Brown, Boston, U.S. / by W. J. Little.

Date:
1848
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Remarks on an additional means of treating lateral curvature of the spine. The invention of Drs. Brown, Boston, U.S. / by W. J. Little. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    attached to them upon the chest or abdomen. A rod c of wood or steel 18 inches in length is affixed by a hinge-joint to the iliac pad, upon which it moves freely in a perpen- dicular direction. A double hook, one convexity looking upwards and the other downwards, is fastened to the outer extremity of this rod. A weight is suspended from the lower hook, and maintained in a position nearly horizontal, slightly obliqued upwards, by two bands of webbing ex- tending from the upper hook in front and behind, and attached to the buttons on the steel projections of the upper pad. A rod furnished with metallic points, in- tended to penetrate the webbing, is placed transversely between the bands, in order to keep them apart. Pressure upon the front or back of the chest is thus altogether avoided. The upper pad is secured in position by straps passing over the shoulder, and fastened to metallic buttons on the pad before and behind; and the lower one is held in its place by a band encircling the pelvis and attached to buttons on the steel projections of the pad, and also by bands reaching from it to the upper. This instrument, which may be appropriately called the Horizontal Lever-Belt, necessarily exerts a powerful effect. The lever, with the weight at the extremity, serves, through the intervention of the long bands and upper pad, to press upon the right projecting ribs; thus opening, so to speak, the lumbar curve, and, of course, throwing the spinal column from its equilibrium. The muscles are in this manner forced to exert their utmost to restore the head and shoulders to the lost centre of gravity, and con- stantly tend, therefore, to straighten the dorsal curve, and to elevate the left, and depress the right, shoulder. The muscles are excited to do their own work, the cure being effected through their agency. The secondary effect of this instrument is to replace the left hip, which commonly