OCR Text |
Show 9:2 COMl'ARIbON Bnrwu‘ir THE seULL AND srmn. rmcrnns or rm: SPIKE. rest; for then lying in bed restores the patient: under the confinement he gets fat instead of wasting. Lying in bed is row suffer from a blow on the spine: so is it bruised or too often a confinement to bad air, the breath and exhalations are confined, and a free circulation of air is not admitted. brae; so is it inflamed or compressed when there is caries of the bone or disease of the membrane; while it is exposed to, further injury by dislocation of the vertebrae. But if, on the contrary, the person confined to bed he cheerful and not despondent, and if he be as careful to change his ap» 93 compressed when there is fracture of the tube of the verte- parel and bed-clothes, and to wash, as if seeing company, and more I OF I'RAC'I'URE OF THE SPIKE. to eat and drink in the moderation proportioned to the little "V" exhaustion or exercise which his situation allows of, he will i y. i get fat and enjoy health. In very bad cases of distorted spine, therefore, I conceive that it will be better to keep the patient in bed or on a sofa, until there be a favourable change in the disease, and that when the anehylosis has formed, or the diseased vertebrae con- solidated, the patient may have the relief of moving about un. der the apparatus for supporting the spine, until the cure is established. am" 1'""rs. over-I-fi‘yfrbu .2 :"<--- r: i That part of Pathology which explains the diseases of the spine, and the effects of injuries of the vertebrae, is very im~ portant. We find the spine to be a column composed of many bones jointed and united by ligaments. We find that while the column has to support the weight of the head and trunk, it is at the same time capable of a certain slight de~ gree of motion betwixt its individual bones. Above all we can never forget that is a tube protecting a prolongation of the brain, the spinal marrow. W'e find that besides the tube of bone, the spinal marrow is surrounded with a sheath, pg, "'9" as a further protection. "5" "if." -‘*~ma&r«*.‘~‘~'¢'-<; . ' 21.150%! Considering these circumstances, we see a strict analogy betwixt the elfects of disease and injury of the vertebra; and of the skull; in both instances the high importance of the subject results from the nature of the contained parts. The brain snfl‘ers concussion in every shock given to the head; compression and injury from fracture of the skull; i11iiammation and suppuration from disease or death of the bone or of surrounding membranes. So does the spinal mar I HAVE had an opportunity of examining by dissection only one instance of FRACTURE of the BODY OF THE venueBRA. The bodies of the vertebrae are not fractured by blows, but by falls, in which the whole body is twisted, or when a bank of earth falls'upon and buries a man. This fracture will not be known by the crepitation like a common fracture of the limbs, but only by the derangement of the projecting spinous processes ; while yet they are not separated as in dislocation, nor crushed and crepitating as when they are themselves fractured, or a blow upon them has crushed in the arch of bone. I have given above, a sketch of the parts in the instance I examined, and it is seen how the body of the vertebra at A is broken, while the intermediate tough and ligamentous sub stance B is entire; it will be seen too how the point of the bone C is forced against the spinal marrow D. The crush-- |