DISTORTION. 



DISTRESS. 



670 



is in extreme cases of this sort that the Cicsarean section has been 

 practised. 



Independently of rickety distortion, there are two other kinds of 

 curvature of the spinal column which demand a brief notice. 



The first, which has frequently been mistaken for rachitis, is 

 usually called lateral curvature, to distinguish it from the more 

 serious kind of distortion next to be considered, which is called 

 angular curvature. 



2. Unlike rickets, which almost always commence in infancy or early 

 childhood, lateral curvature of the spine seldom appears before the 

 tenth year. The external deformity consists in the prominence of 

 one hip (generally the right), and elevation of the corresponding 

 shoulder, the blade of which sticks out in unsightly protuberance 

 behind. The opposite hip and shoulder are respectively flattened and 

 depressed ; and the symmetry of the chest ia destroyed, one side being 

 larger than the other, and both twisted and misshapen. On exami- 

 nation the spine is found to have a double curvature sideways, BO as to 

 resemble the letter S, but generally turned the other way, the con- 

 cavity of the lower curve being on the right, and the upper on the 

 left side. It arises from weakness in the spinal muscles and local 

 elongations of the ligaments of the vertebrae, from the habit of resting 

 the weight in sitting or standing more on one side than the other ; 

 and that side is usually the right. The position is more easy than the 

 upright one, and when not corrected by fitting exercise and change in 

 the nature of the employment, it becomes habitual, and the twist 

 of the person permanent and increasing. The subjects of this kind 

 of distortion are chiefly slender and delicate girls in the middle and 

 upper classes, the poor being comparatively exempt. It comes on in- 

 sidiously, the attention not being awakened by any particular derange- 

 ment of the health beyond a certain degree of languor and susceptibility 

 of fatigue, and perhaps a sluggish state of the digestion. The first 

 symptom that betrays its presence is usually a tendency of the dress 

 to slip off the left shoulder. It is much promoted by means often used 

 to prevent it, such as confinement and restraint of the person and 

 posture by stays, backboards, high-backed chairs, reclining on a board, 

 and other contrivances to improve the figure, and restrain the deve- 

 lopment f the natural form ; as well as by the sedentary habits and 

 inappropriate exercises of the academy or school-room. Nature is not 

 to be coerced with impunity by fantastic caprices and contrivances : a 

 good figure as well as good health must be found, if anywhere, in the 

 open air of the fields, in loose and easy clothing, and in unrestrained 

 exercise of the limbs, such as children will always adopt, if left to 

 choose for themselves, in ways much better suited to their age and 

 strength than any that can be invented for them. 



3. Angular curvature of the spine is a deformity very different in 

 its nature and appearance from the last described. It arises for the 

 most part from ulceration of a scrofulous kind in the bodies of the 

 vertebne. The support in front being thus lost, the spine is sharply 

 bent forwards so that one or more of the spinous processes project 

 behind, indicating the position of the diseased vertebne. This com- 

 plaint is attended with incomplete paralysis of the lower extremities, 

 and is not unfrequently fatal. In case of recovery the bodies of the 

 contiguous vertebra arc approximated and consolidated with what 

 remains of those which were diseased by the deposition of bony matter. 

 It is in this species of spinal complaint only that rest and the recum- 

 bent posture are expedient. The observance of these essential pre- 

 cautions, concurrently with other means, frequently brings about a 

 i'iir>: ; the distortion however is permanent. 



Diseases of a similar kind frequently occur in the bones and joints 

 of other parts of the body ; they require similar treatment, and are 

 followed by analogous consolidations and distortions. 



4. Rheumatism and other disorders, and even common inflammations, 

 occurring in a high degree within the joints or in their neighbourhood, 

 occasionally produce like effects. 



III. Distortions are sometimes occasioned by the contraction of 

 other parts than those which are concerned in motion. 



1. Such are those of the fingers, which arise from chronic inflamma- 

 tion and permanent contraction of the palmar aponeurosis, or fascia, 

 a strong inehistic and fibrous membrane attached to the projecting 

 points of bone, and stretched beneath the skin of the palm for the 

 protection of the nerves and other soft parts during the act of forcible 

 grasping. There is a similar aponeurosis in the sole of the foot, which 

 is subject, but not so frequently, to the same shortening. Under this 

 division may be also classed those distortions which arise from burns 

 and other extensive destructions and ulcerations of the skin, in con- 

 sequence of the contraction of the scar in the process of healing. 

 When these injuries take place in front of the neck and face, the 

 resulting deformity is sometimes frightful. The space between the 

 chin and the breast is filled up by a tense discoloured and corrugated 

 cicatrix, which bows the head forward and draws down the features so 

 as to expose the inner surface of the lower eyelid and keep the mouth 

 constantly open. When they occur in the flexures of the joints, as in 

 front of the elbow, the cicatrix extends in the form of a hard and rigid 

 web between the humerus and fore-arm, the joint being permanently 

 bent. Such deformities may sometimes be partly removed by an 

 operation ; but it is extremely painful, and often unsuccessful. 



2. A slight injury of the face below the eye, or the simple con- 

 traction from Home other cause of the skin of that part may produce 



the deformity called ectropmm, or eversiou of the lower lid ; and the 

 opposite state of inversion (entropium or trichiatis) may result from a 

 similar contraction of the edge of the eyelid itself. Severe inflammation, 

 and even blindness, may be the consequence of the latter affection from 

 the friction of the lashes against the globe. Both of these deformities 

 may be remedied by a slight operation. 



IV. Another class of distortions may arise from external pressure ; 

 as of the bones and cartilages of the chest from tight stays ; or of the 

 phalanges of the toes from ill-made shoes. Instances of this kind of 

 distortion must be familiar to all ; and call for no particular expla- 

 nation or remark. 



DISTRESS, dislrictio in the jurisprudence of the middle ages, 

 denotes legal eompxilsion generally, whether ecclesiastical or civil. 

 One mode of compulsion extensively adopted among the nations of 

 Teutonic origin was the taking possession of the whole or a part of the 

 property of the offender or defaulter, and withholding it from him 

 until the requirements of the law had been complied with. This 

 species of distress was called " naam," from nyman, nehman, to take 

 a verb common to the Anglo-Saxon, German, and other cognate lan- 

 guages. The modern distress is the " naam," restricted to the taking 

 of personal chattels ; and in its most simple form it may be stated to 

 be the taking of personal chattels out of the possession of an alleged 

 defaulter or wrong-doer, for the purpose of compelling him, through 

 the inconvenience resulting from the withholding of such personal 

 chattels, to perform the act in respect of which he is a defaulter, or 

 to make compensation for the wrong which he has committed. 



Some rights to which the law annexes the remedy by distress, have 

 been considered as too important to be left to the protection afforded 

 by the mere detention of the distress (by which term the thing taken 

 is also designated), and more efficacious means of dealing with it have 

 been introduced ; and in certain cases a sale of the property taken by 

 way of distress is allowed, if, after a certain interval, the party dis- 

 trained upon continues to be unwilling or unable to do the act 

 required. 



Distresses are either for some duty omitted, some default or non- 

 feasance, or they are in respect of some wrongful act done by the 

 distrainee ; that is, the person whose goods are distrained upon. 



I. Ai to dittrates for omitsiom, defaults, or nonfeasance. These may 

 be grounded upon non-compliance with some judicial requirements, or 

 they may be made by private individuals in vindication of certain 

 rights, for the withholding of which the law has entrusted them with 

 this remedy. 



The process out of courts of record ordering such distresses to be 

 made, is called a writ of distringas, which, when legal proceedings were 

 in Latin, was the word used to direct the sheriff or other officer to 

 make the distress. 



Another class of judicial distresses is where, upon refusal or omission 

 to pay a sum in which a party is convicted upon a summary proceeding 

 before justices of the peace, such justices are empowered to grant a 

 warrant authorising and directing the levying of the amount by distress 

 and sale of the goods of the offender. 



Another species of judicial distress is that awarded and issued upon 

 a judgment recovered in an inferior court, not of record. In these 

 cases the execution or remedy for obtaining payment of the sum reco- 

 vered is by distress. A precept issues to the officer of the court, 

 commanding him to take the goods of the party, and to impound them 

 until he satisfies the debt. Such process issues at the command of the 

 sheriff, or of the lord of the manor, &c., in whose name and by whose 

 authority the courts are holden. 



So a distress lies, subject to certain restrictions, for fines and amerce- 

 ments imposed in the sheriff's tourn and in a court-leet. [Lr.ET ; 

 TOURS.] 



A penalty inflicted for the breach of a bye law [BTE-LAw] may be 

 levied by distress, in cases where that remedy is appointed at the time 

 of the making of the particular bye-law. But a bye-law establishing a 

 distress cannot authorise the sale of the distress. 



Another species of judicial distress is a distress taken for various 

 rates and legal assessments. 



In the foregoing cases the right or duty withheld has been ascer- 

 tained by some judicial determination before a distress can be resorted 

 to. But many payments and duties having their origin in feudal rights 

 may be enforced by distresses taken by the sole authority of the parties 

 claiming such payments or duties. The rights, of which the vindi- 

 cation is thus in the first instance entrusted to the parties themselves, 

 are connected immediately or mediately with feudal superiority ; and 

 it is observable, that to feudal superiority, jurisdiction and magisterial 

 authority were always incident. 



Among the feudal duties which may be enforced by distress, at the 

 mere will of the party claiming to be entitled to such duties, one, 

 which though seldom exacted, is still of the most extensive obligation, 

 is fealty. Fealty is a promise, confirmed by an oath, to be faithful in 

 the performance of those engagements into which the party doing the 

 fealty (as the act of taking the oath is termed) has expressly or 

 impliedly entered upon becoming tenant to the party receiving the 

 fealty. 



A distress also lies for suit of court, teeta ad curiam, or the attend- 

 ance which freehold tenants owe to their lord's court-baron, or 

 freeholders' -court, and which tenants in villenage or copyholders owa 



