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130

CHAPTER IX.

ON SPINAL DEFORMITIES.

"I am a cripple in my back, but what decays there are in my mind the reader must determine."

Dryden.

PATHOLOGICAL disquisitions form no portion of the task which we have allotted ourselves to perform; we must however speak cursorily of some things, the full description of which belongs more properly to the anatomist and surgeon, because, if we avoided the matter entirely, we should be unable to show the reasonableness of many of our adaptations, and the special cases in which they should be employed. Besides this, it must be borne in mind that our labours are confined to ladies and children, and that even with them we never pretend to take the place of the medical adviser. Medicine is not our vocation; but when medical men seek us, then we give to the body that support necessary to enable it to regain the erect position.