Rules and regulations of the New-York Surgeon's Bandage Institute : with remarks upon the use of bandages in the cure of curvature of the spine, club-feet, &c. / by J. Knight.

  • New York (N.Y.). Surgeon's Bandage Institute.
Date:
1842
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Rules and regulations of the New-York Surgeon's Bandage Institute : with remarks upon the use of bandages in the cure of curvature of the spine, club-feet, &c. / by J. Knight. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    The reverse is the effect of efforts made to exercise the relaxed muscles :—by such exercise, tone and elasticity- is obtained, if gradually increased, and hence the benefit that is derived from gymnastic exercises, when judiciously prescribed, and ought to be conjoined as an auxiliary in the treatment for cure of curvature of the spine, as it will com- pensate for any loss of tone induced by the use of appara- tus intended to overcome the contraction of the muscles producing deformity, and which would prove injurious if the extended muscles are not improved in tone, which can alone be acquired by voluntary exercise, the general health being unimpaired. Thus it is, that the use of bandages alone, have failed to cure curvature of the spine, and always will fail as they are only auxiliaries in the treatment of the disease, how- ever well constructed, and require much attention and skill in their application and use. The first effort in a judicious course of treatment is to improve the generalhealth of the individual; then to apply a properly constructed bandage which is to be worn at in- tervals ; the next is well regulated exercise alternated by rest from the use of the bandage and exercise, and which can only be regulated by a person experienced in the treat- ment of such difficulties, which, in a majority of cases, are curable by judicious treatment. REMARKS ON THE USE OF BANDAGES IN THE CURE OF TALIPS OR CLUB FEET. Distortion of the feet in their most distorted form may be cured in infants by the use of a properly constructed ban- dage, and attention from a person skilled in its use,—even without submitting the child to actual pain, as there is no deformity of the bones, simply a contraction of the ten- dons and facia, which yield most readily to well regulated extension and gentle efforts, made by manipulation, and maintained by a bandage or shoe constructed for that purpose. In persons somewhat advanced in years, where the tendons and facia has become more firm in tex-