PREVENTION OF SPINAL DISTORTION. 307 



only confirmed and increased by this kind of treatment. 

 The spine it is true may be stretched into shape, by 

 screws and pullies, but if the muscles of the back are 

 pressed, or their action superseded by the machinery, 

 the cure will be found to last no longer than the machine 

 is employed, and when this is removed the curvature 

 will gradually return, and probably become worse than 

 before, because the muscles by inaction are still less 

 able to support it in the erect position than when such 

 treatment commenced. 



A variety of other machines besides those above 

 mentioned, have been invented and are employed for 

 the same purpose, both in Europe and in our own coun- 

 try. One of these is constructed for the express pur- 

 pose of forcing the vertebrae into their places, under the 

 mistaken notion that in certain cases of distorted spines 

 these bones are dislocated. There is no doubt but many 

 a sufferer from spinal distortion, through the ignorance 

 of herself, her family, and of the practitioner, have fallen 

 disabled victims to the use of these machines. But 

 perhaps enough has been said on this subject. 



It is not pretended that want of exercise, improper 

 postures in sitting, and the use of excessive lacing are 

 the sole causes of spinal distortions. On the contrary, 

 these affections are sometimes the consequences of dis- 

 eases which probably no prudence or foresight on the 

 part of the sufferer or her friends could have avoided. 

 But that the greatest proportion of these cases are ow- 

 ing to the causes assigned, those who will examine the 

 subject will have not the least doubt. 



Girls, from their organization, are no more obnoxious 

 to these affections than boys, but with the exception of 

 rickets, to which both sexes are liable, we may look al- 

 most in vain for a case of spinal distortion among the 

 latter. And besides, if we go into the country, where 

 fashion allows nature, and not art, to mould the female 

 form, arid where the children of both sexes take nearly 

 the same amount of the same kinds of exercise, in the 

 open air, there will be found but little difference in the 

 number of spinal distortions in the two sexes, instances 

 of either being comparatively rare. 



If, then, parents and school teachers would avoid the 



