PREVENTION OF SPINAL DISTORTION. 315 



only confirmed and increased by this kind of treatment. 

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

 screws and pulleys, 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 pressed, or their action superseded by the machinery, the 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 sup- 

 port it in the erect position than when such treatment 

 commenced. 



1012. A variety of other machines beside those above 

 mentioned, have been invented and are employed for the 

 same purpose, both in Europe and in our own country. 

 One of these is constructed for the express purpose of 

 forcing the vertebrse 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. 



1013. It is not pretended that want of exercise, im- 

 proper postures in sitting, and the use of excessive la- 

 cing, are the sole causes of spinal distortions. On the 

 contrary, these affections are sometimes the consequences 

 of diseases 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 owing 

 to the causes assigned, those who "will examine the subject 

 will not have the least doubt. 



1014. Girls from their organization, are no more ob- 

 noxious to these affections than boys, but with the excep- 

 tion of rickets, to which both sexes are liable, we may 

 look almost 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, and where the children of both sexes take nearly 

 the same amount of the same kind 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. 



1015. If then, parents and school teachers would avoid 



