abandoning his favourite games, losing his activity and appetite, looking serious and pensive, without being able to assign any reason for it; when days pass over in the same condition without his complaining of any pains, but getting more sullen and morose, looking pale and languid, anxiety appearing on his face, seeking for rest, leaning on the objects around him, taking all sorts of awkward positions, and seeming to crawl rather than to walk, you have the forerunners of deformity. If, then, immediate means are not adopted you soon see what is called a shoulder growing out—the head projecting forward, stooping of the body, standing on one leg, &c. When this second set of symptoms appears, depend upon it that the spine is already crooked. It generally happens that the first stage of deformity is only detected some years after its origin, and when the curve has attained a certain degree. Then the pressure which takes place causes the deformity to increase with great rapidity, the organs are in danger of injury, and unless immediate measures are adopted the consequences may be fatal."*[1]
Another injurious result of the poking forward of the head is the contraction of the trachea or windpipe, and the consequent alteration and deterioration of the voice. Shakespeare says that a soft voice is "an excellent thing in woman;" and with that opinion most of our readers will cordially concur. But a sweet, sonorous, and delightful voice can never proceed from a contracted chest and a cramped larynx; nor can any external show compensate for the want of it. Dress may hide In any other deficiencies, but it can never mitigate this. And we know of nothing that is more disagreeable than the union of a pleasing face and elegant costume with a poking head and a hoarse discordant voice.
"The spine itself is composed of twenty-four bones, each of them possessing fourteen different parts, such as the body, the spinous and transverse processes, the articulating surfaces, &c.; it results that the bony construction of the spine presents 336 different parts, without the cartilages, ligaments, and a proportionate number of muscles, blood vessels and nerves. Is it not astonishing that this wonderful piece of mechanism operates during the whole life without getting out of order? and, when there is a derangement, may we not more reasonably refer it
- ↑ * Dr. Caplin's Lectures on Deformities of Spine, 1849.
