On the effects of rickets upon the growth of the skull / by Alexander Shaw.

Date:
1843
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the effects of rickets upon the growth of the skull / by Alexander Shaw. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    nuance of the disease, marks of the configuration of the child. Now, as rickets is a complaint of the character referred to (for it is known to he attended with marasmus, or general wasting of the body, and it is owing to the bones being imperfectly supplied with the hardening material which gives them firmness, that they become bent under the incumbent weight, and distortion ensues), we can understand how it should not only prevent the body attaining its full size, but give rise at the same time to that disproportion of the figure which has been described.* The converse of this condition is observed in the figures of persons whose growth, instead of having been retarded, has been more active than common; as in men of large stature. Since the lower extre- mities increase at a more rapid rate than the parts above, it follows that the former become of inordi- nate length compared with the latter. Hence it is * When I formerly solicited attention to these views, it was principally to point out their importance in connection with the dimensions of the pelvis in child-bearing women, deformed from rickets. It was my object to show, that as in the progress of growth this circle of bones undergoes an increase of its size more extensive in proportion to its original dimensions than any other part of the skeleton, (and the difference is greater in the female than in the male,) the interruption of the growth caused by rickets, gives rise to a correspondingly great diminu- tion in its bulk, compared with the rest of the skeleton. To ascertain the average amount of this deficiency, and thus judge of the share which the consequent sniallness of the pelvis has in