114 SEVENTH REPORT—1837. 
Practical Observations on the Causes and Treatment of the Curvature 
of the Spine, with an Etching and Description of an Apparatus for 
the Use of Persons afflicted by the Disease. By S. Hare, Surgeon, 
Leeds. 
Confining his remarks on the origin of curvature of the spine to 
one of three causes which he assigns, viz. impropriety of dress, want 
of free exercise, as being chiefly instrumental in producing lateral cur- 
vature, which is of most general occurrence; the author demonstrated 
the manner in which the right shoulder is elevated, and the left 
shoulder depressed in females of the higher and middle classes, by the 
injurious tightening of the stays. 
For correcting curvature of the spine the author employs an 
inclined board, 6 feet 6 inches long, furnished with pullies at each 
end, over which weighted cords pass, so as to pull in opposite direc- 
tions, a head strap, and two shoulder straps, two ankle straps, and an 
(occasional) iliac strap. There is an apparatus for compression on 
the sternum appended to the inclined plane. The author particularly 
notices that the weights used must on no account be such as to incon- 
venience the patient, unless the medical adviser have some particular 
reason for so increasing them. 
On the Order of Succession of the Motions of the Heart. 
By O'Bryan Bettincuam, M.D. of Dublin. 
If we lay bare the pericardium in a frog (there being no necessity 
to open it) without causing the loss of much blood, the following se- 
ries of motions will be observed. The contraction of the auricles ; 
then the dilatation of the ventricle ; and if we place our finger on it at 
the instant we feel the impulse ; immediately and quickly following the 
dilatation comes the contraction of the ventricle, without any impulse ; 
then follows the interval of repose during which the auricular contrac- 
tion again commences. 
The time occupied by the diastole of the ventricle is longer than that 
_ of its systole, and the interval of repose is about equal to the systole, 
The apex of the heart did not strike the finger either during the dia- 
stole or systole of the ventricle, but the anterior surface of the ventri- 
cle during its diastole communicated an impulse to the finger. In 
some instances, indeed, when the pericardium was partially opened, 
and the animal struggled much, the apex of the heart was carried for- 
ward during the second motion, or its systole; but when the animal 
remained quiet, nothing of the kind occurred, the ventricle in its sy- 
stole contracting from the angles (which its base makes with the au- 
ricles) toward its centre, and becoming smaller. 
The author compares these results with the motions of the heart of 
man, as given by Dr. Hope, from which they differ, both as regards 
the order of succession and the duration of the motions. 
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