THE IMPERFECTIONS OF MAN 



ment, and even encroach upon the spinal canal. Alternatively, 

 as if by the insistent action of "'telescoping'' forces, nuclear 

 matter may break through perforations in the cartilaginous 

 plates and obtrude into the vertebral bodies, which are made 

 of spongy rather than of compact and concentrated bone. In 

 recent years, the opinion has been gaining ground (perhaps too 

 rapidly) that many disabilities which have been loosely classi- 

 fied as sciatica, lumbago and vague rheumaticky back pains are 

 due to abnormalities of the intervertebral disks; the immediate 

 causes of pain may still be debatable — for example, as to 

 whether or not mere chronic pressure on a nerve root can cause 

 inflammation and thereby pain — but their anatomical origin 

 seems pretty certain. 



The exhaustive anatomical studies of the Dresden patholo- 

 gist Schmorl have led the way to a conclusion of more 

 general biological interest, that the spinal column is the first 

 organ in man to ''age\ that is, to show the deterioration conse- 

 quent upon ageing.^ Pathological changes, it has been said, are 

 detectable as early as the eighteenth year of life. The deteriora- 

 tion of the spinal column provides, indeed, what is perhaps the 

 best example of a process of ageing which at least begins by 

 being a consequence of the cumulative effects of wear and tear 

 — of chronic functional attrition, as opposed to the ""innate 

 deterioration**, which takes place independently of abuse, or 

 even use. 



Man''s upright stance has incomparable advantages, perhaps 

 above all in providing for his principal physical (as opposed to 

 mental) asset, manual dexterity, but it takes its toll in the 

 mechanical vulnerability of the spine. 'Disk lesions'* are not, of 



1 It has competitors of course. If we accept the widely held view that the 

 human ovary starts with a fixed number of egg cells, which cannot be added 

 to but are merely used up as life goes on, then the ovary could be said, in a 

 sense, to 'age' from birth. But it is a rather special sense. A clock may work 

 perfectly though its mainspring is uncoiling; it is using up its potential of 

 stored time, but as a timepiece it is as good as fully wound until it stops. 



I 129 



