The deformities of the human body : a system of orthopædic surgery, being a course of lectures delivered at St. George's Hospital / by Bernard E. Brodhurst.

  • Brodhurst, Bernard Edward, 1822-1900.
Date:
1871
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The deformities of the human body : a system of orthopædic surgery, being a course of lectures delivered at St. George's Hospital / by Bernard E. Brodhurst. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

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    Like other nervous affections congenital defor- mities are hereditary. Thus, I have known five boys in one family who have suffered with congenital talipes varus, their father, uncle, and paternal grandfather having likewise suffered from similar forms of distortion. In each generation females were added to this family, but none of them were deformed at birth. I have lately also seen another family of four children, two boys and two girls, all of whom were club-footed at birth : their mother also was club-footed. Dr. Little, speaking of talipes varus, says: I have traced it on the paternal side even through four generations—namely, the male infant, the father, the grandfather, and the great-grandfather.* Arrest of development will occasion deformity, or even monstrosity; occurring as it may in a limb whilst growth elsewhere proceeds in a normal manner. Thus, if in the embryo growth be arrested, and this condition of parts be continued in the foetus, it becomes monstrosity. For instance, a hand without fingers, or a foot without toes, would represent, according to Wagner, the conditions of those parts of the embryo at the seventh week of development. Should arrest of development take place in these parts at this period of existence, a form, which in the normal condition is transient only and confined to embryonic life, becomes, if continued, monstrosity in the child. Further, it has been shown by Wagner that up to the fourth or fifth month, or even later, the embryo may present * Article Orthopedic Surgery, in ' Holmes' System of Surgery-'