Memoirs of Erasmus Darwin, M.D. 37- 



In respect to the season of the year, delicate children should 

 certainly only bathe in the summer months ; as the going 

 frequently into the cold air in winter will answer all the pur- 

 poses of the cold bath. 



Claudicatio coxaria. Lameness of the hip; A nodding of 

 the thigh bone is said to be produced in feeble children by 

 the softness of the neck or upper part of that bone beneath 

 the cartilage ; which is naturally bent, and in this disease 

 bends more downwards, or nods, by the pressure of the 

 body, and thus renders one leg apparently shorter than the 

 other. In other cases the end of the bone is protruded out 

 of its socket, by inflammation or enlargement of the carti- 

 lages or ligaments of the joint, so that it rests on some part 

 'of the edge of the acetabulum, which in time becomes filled 

 tip. When the legs are straight, as in standing erect, there 

 is no verticillary motion in the knee-joint ; all the motion 

 then in turning out the toes further than Nature designed, 

 must be obtained bv straining in some degree this head of the 

 thigh-bone, or the acetabulum, or cavity, in which it moves* 

 This has induced me to believe, that this misfortune of the 

 nodding of the head by the bone, or partial dislocation of it., 

 by which one leg becomes shorter than the other, is some- 

 times occasioned by making very young children stand in. 

 what are called stocks ; that is, with their heels together, 

 and their toes quite out. Whence the socket of the thigh 

 bone becomes inflamed and painful, or the neck of the bone 

 is bent downward and outwards. 



In this case there is no expectation of recovering the 

 straightness of the end of the bone : but these patients 

 are liable to another misfortune, that is, to acquire after- 

 wards a distortion of the spine ; for as one leg is shorter 

 than the other, they sink on that side, and in consequence 

 bend the upper part of their bodies, as their shpulders^ the 

 contrary way, to balance themselves ', and then again the 

 neck is bent back again towards the lame side, to preserve 

 the head perpendicular; and thus the figure becomes quite 

 distorted like the letter S, owing originally to the deficiency 

 of the length of one limb. The only way to prevent this 

 curvature of the spine is for the child to wear a high-heeled 



C 3 sho£ 



