332 On Gymnastic Exercises. 



by exercises. They may be led to believe that the distorted 

 appearance of a girl proceeds from an alteration in the form of 

 the bones, while it may be owing only to a degree of relaxation 

 and weakness *. When they see a girl in such a condition get 

 rapidly better, merely by going through certain exercises, they 

 naturally suppose that the same means will be successful in 

 every case. This opinion is strengthened by the circumstance, 

 that even when the distortion depends on a change having taken 

 place in the form of the vertebrae, this system of treatment im- 

 proves the health and vigour of the patient so much, that she is 

 soon able to carry herself better than before, and the deformity 

 is consequently not so apparent. This induces the friends to 

 persevere in the system, and it is natural for them to imagine 

 that if so much benefit accrues from a short trial of exercise, 

 a curvature, however bad, may be completely cured by per- 

 severance. 



This method of treatment has been considered a modern 

 discovery ; but the older authors were acquainted with it, and 

 in their writings we find a variety of exercises described, as 

 suitable to different diseases. 



Portal, the French physician, in his work upon rickets, after 



* It must have occurred to almost every practitioner to be asked why 

 a girl appears crooked at one time and straight at another. The suspicion 

 that the girl is twisted, is generally considered as the mere fancy of an 

 anxious mother ; but it is not altogether ideal, and the cause of the 

 change in the form may, perhaps, be explained. Young persons are 

 subject to a peculiar squint, which is generally removed by attention 

 to the state of the bowels. Now, as the muscles for the support of the 

 spine are as dependent on the bowels for the proper performance of their 

 functions as those of the eye, why may they not occasionally be in a state 

 to twist the body as those of the orbit are to twist the eye ? In several 

 instances where the parents had been led to believe that the spine was 

 actually distorted, the patients were subjected to very severe modes of 

 treatment. In these cases the practitioner was probably also de- 

 ceived, and really imagined that the figure was restored by some par- 

 ticular and direct effect which exercises or confinement to the inclined 

 plane had upon the spine, when in fact the removal of the curves 

 depended almost solely on the improvement in the state of the bowels. 

 But these^jremarks should not lead to the belief, that certain medicines 

 ■which act on the bowels will be sufficient to rem.ove the deformity. Ap- 

 propriate exercises and rest have nearly as much effect on the bowels 

 as the best medicines ; but as both plans of treatment are good, the 

 most rational mode of proceeding is to combine them. 



