Read before the Suffolk District Medical Society, Sept. 24th, 1870.J. S., of Irish parentage, five years and two months old, was admitted into "The Children's Hospital" on the 2d September, 1870. To the age of three years ho was quite a healthy child, but at about that period he began to move and act as though he had less strength than usual, and by degrees his mother came to acknowledge that such was really the case ; this condition increased and the spinal column became very weak, and the " inward crook " of it was noticed by her.. Two weeks before admission ho had a whitlow upon the fore-finger of his left hand, and one week before, he had a fall while attempting to run upon a sidewalk ; from the first event the mother dated the special failing of his health, which she thought was increased by the second, and the evident decrease of his vital powers induced her to seek for him the benefits of the Hospital. When first seen by the writer, the child was sitting in a corner of his bed, a soft pillow being behind him, he being in such a position that if a line had been carried from-the end of tho spine, over it, to the back of his head and continued on the same curve, it would have formed a circle, or nearly so.On tho day after admission, Dr. Webber saw the patient with me, and at once recognized the disease* Wo caused him to stand upon the floor, and he walked a few steps in a tottling or shambling manner. The spine presented a regular and exaggerated curve inward, from the third or fourth dorsal vertebra to the sacrum. This shape comes well under the name given by Duchenne-"saddle-back." A perfect nieturc of this child may bo seen in Duchenne's book, electrisation localisée, 2ud edition, 1861, p. 355. The head, while he was standing, and indeed while he was in any position which might have been called upright, gave to the spectator tho idea that it was large and heavy, for tho chin rested upon the sternum, and was inclined moro to the right shoulder than to the left. A copy from Duchcnne is presented.The muscles of the calves were largely developed, and the nates seemed to be so.
height, of an attack of lymphangitis, blood from any part of the body yielded staphylococci in pure culture. Fluid taken from olel case's that had not, had acute inflammation for years generally gave' no growth.
swollen supersensitive prostate of the bicyclist, both due to the abuse of popular amusements.Defects of refraction or visual defects, constitute another class of affections fairly attributable in many instances, to social influences. The number of children which may be seen in our streets any day, wearing glasses, has become a matter of common observation. It is far from being probable that the most exquisite piece of mechanism, the human eye, came from the Divine Artificer, imperfect. Because eyes are young it does not follow that the}' are thereby better fitted to sustain prolonged use. Just the reverse is true, and it is high time that parents and educators began to recognize the fact. The power of the eyes for continued use like that of other organs of the body, is one of gradation. It moves in the general procession and strengthens with the advance in life until development has attained to its zenith. Not only so, but the eye being a part of the body, it must suffer or rejoice through the operation of general causes. A bone may have its normal curves changed, a tendon may slip from its appointed groove, or a bloodvessel be destroyed, and yet very little disability be realized ; but the eye is made up of such extremely delicate structures and acts according to fixed physical laws, so that not the slightest alteration of a curve or the mobility or density of its media can occur, without great vitiation of function.To exact, therefore, long hours of study from children of a tender age, involves a degree of functional strain, altogether disproportionate to the structural resources of the organ, and by disturbing the orderly processes of nutrition, give rise to hypermetropia, asthenopia, astigmatism, and its companion headache. That the picture is not too highly colored or the causation overstrained, we have only to contrast the children born and reared in those portions of the country not too much dominated by the methods of modern civilization, and who rarely demand a resort to artificial aid to provide for abnormalities of vision. The only remedy for the evil where infantile scholarship is insisted upon, is the Kindergarten or object system, the most natural and effective plan of impressing the young mind.Renal Disease.-Is there any reasonable explanation drawn from sources of a social nature for the great frequency of those renal disorders which come more particularly under the care of the surgeon as crystaline deposits aud calculi ? For maintaining the general health at the highest physiological standard, a proper quality of food aud the proper disposal of tissue waste are essential conditions. Along with wealth and luxury come the abuses of the table. Americans are fast becoming a nation of dyspeptics. Our country is so rich in the products of every zone that nowhere else in the world can you find such a variety of foods, animal and vegetable. These foods, manipulated in a thousand ways by the subtle art of the professional cook, almost necessarily betray one into excess, and also create the desire for win...
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