32 Memoirs of Erasmus Darwin , M.D. 



in some degree by the bark. She beuan to bend forward^ 

 and to lift up her shoulders. The former seemed owiiig to 

 a beginning curvature of the spine, the latter was probably 

 caused to facilitate her difficult respiration. 



M. M. She used the warm bath, as above related ; wh ch 

 by its warmth might increase the irritability of the smallest 

 series of vessels, and by supplying more moisture to the 

 blood might probably tend to carry further the materials 

 which form calcareous or bony particles, or to convey them 

 in more dilute solution. She took twice a day twenty grains 

 of extract of bark, twenty grains of soda phosphorata, and 

 ten grains of chalk, and ten of calcined hartshorn, mixed into 

 a powder with ten drops of laudanum ; with flesh food both 

 to dinner and supper ; and Port wine and water instead of the. 

 small beer she had been accustomed to ; she lay on a sofa 

 frequently in a day, and occasionally used a neck -swing. 



Rachitis. Rickets. — The head is large, protuberant chiefly 

 on the forepart. The smaller joints are swelled ; the ribs 

 depressed ; the belly tumid, with other parts emaciated. 

 This disease from the innutrition or softness of the bones 

 arose about two centuries ago ; seems to .have been half a 

 century in an increasing or spreading state; continued about 

 balf a century at its height, or greatest diffusion; and i3 

 now nearly vanished ; which gives reason to hope, that the 

 smallpox, measles, and venereal disease, which are all of 

 modern production, and have already become milder, may 

 in process of time vanish from the earth, and perhaps be 

 succeeded by new ones ! 



Spince distortio. Distortion of the spine is another disease 

 originating!: from the innutrition or softness of the bones. I 

 once saw a child about six years old with palpitation of heart 

 and quickness of respiration, which began to have a curva- 

 ture of the spine ; I then doubted, whether the palpitation 

 and quick respiration were the cause or consequence of the 

 curvature of the spine ; suspecting either that Nature had 

 bent the spine outwards to give room to the enlarged heart, 

 or that the malformation of the chest had compressed and 

 impeded the movements of the heart. But a few weeks ago, 

 on attending a young lady about ten years old, whose spine 



bad. 



