THE 



QUARTERLY JOURNAL 



OF 



SCIENCE, LITERATURE, AND ART. 



On the Means generally used with the Intention of curing 

 a Stoop,* 



When the chest and the head fall forward, the most common 

 method of trying to correct the stoop is to put on some instru- 

 ment by which the shoulders and the head are held back. To 

 operate upon the shoulders, the common back-collar is applied, 

 and to hold back the head, a riband is brought over the fore- 

 head and fastened to the collar. 



While these instruments are kept on, the figure looks 

 straight, though stiff and constrained ; but the moment they 

 are taken off, both the head and the shoulders fall more for- 

 ward, than before their application. Many examples of the 

 bad effect of artificially supporting the head might be offered. 

 The following, although observed in the figure of a horse, is 

 very demonstrative. When the rein (called the bearing-rein), 

 by which the head of a carriage-horse is reared up, with the 

 intention of giving him a showy figure, is loosened, the head 

 immediately falls fonvard, and the neck, instead of preserving 

 the fine arch that is so much admired, droops between the 

 shoulders. Looking to this effect, we should at first be 

 inclined to condemn the practice followed by horse-dealers, of 

 reining up the head of a young horse in the stable, by means 

 of the apparatus called a dumb-jockey. But on examining 



* For this, and some other communications upon the same subject, we 

 are chiefly indebted to our much-lamented friend and conespondent, the 

 late Mr. Shaw, Surgeon to the Middlesex Hospital. 



OCT.— DEC 1827, R 



