Medical testimony in regard to Dr. Davis's new mode of treating joint diseases.

  • Davis, Henry G. (Henry Gassett), 1807-1896.
Date:
[1863?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medical testimony in regard to Dr. Davis's new mode of treating joint diseases. 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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    CLUB-FEKT. Continued-elastic extension is the surest means of overcoming this de- formity, and that, too, without any division of the tendons by the knife. This mode I have sometimes termed treatment by artificial muscles. It has been practiced by me for the last fifteen years, but is now brought forward by European surgeons as originating with them. It is aston- ishing with what readiness these deformities yield to this process. Before Treatment. Case 10. After Treatment. Case 10.—Willie Barret, aged four years, congenital deformity; walked upon his toes; could not balance himself when standing with- out support. Was put under treatment by artificial muscles, to counteract the extensors of the foot; in three weeks time could place his foot flat upon the floor. Has been without apparatus for some months; when excited and attempting to run, however, he will rise a little upon his toes. LATERAL CURVATURE OP THE SPINE. Elastic extension is as applicable to this deformity as to any other arising from muscular action. My apparatus is based upon this prin- ciple, and acts by wearying and exhausting the power of those mus- cles that drag the spine to one side, while, at the same time, it not only permits, but aids, the muscles of the opposite side to brln<>- the spine into its normal position. Slight cases, and severe ones, after the deformity has been partially overcome by the use of apparatus, I have been accustomed, for the last twenty-five years, to treat by exercising and developing those muscles that were not#sufficiently vigorous to sustain the spine in its normal position. This mode of treatment has been recently brought forward as something new, under the popular title of Swedish Movement Cure. That it is not entitled to any consideration as a novelty, is evident from the fact that it has been in use in this country for twen-