DISTORTION

(Lat. distorqueo, / turn awry.) An unnatural deviation of shape or position of any part of the body, producing visible deformity. Some distortions are exclusively dependent upon disordered actions of the muscles or nerves, or both; certain kinds of lamene , for instance, arise from 3 want of due sympathy between the flexor and extensor muscles, or from an unnatural contraction of one or more muscle i* in consequence of the inefficiency of their opponents j hence various paralytic distortions, squinting, wry neck, and some forms of what is termed club-foot. The most common cause of distortion, however, is disease of the bones, which, being sometimes deficient in their hardening or earthy principle, are incapable of supporting the weight of parts which they are designed to bear, or of sustaining pre ure or muscular action, without more or le flexure. Of this kind is the disease called rickets (from poe-xi;, the spine), in which it has been presumed, though erroneously, that the vertebrae are the chief seat of the mischief. Besides rickets, there are other cases of curvature of the spine, the causes of which are by no means very obvious, more especially those of the serpentine or lateral curvature, which is not unfrequent among delicate girls in the higher and middling cla es of life, though of very rare occurrence among the lower orders. This disease is usually observed about the ninth or tenth year, and the symptoms are generally traced in the following order; — 1. The child makes fre, quent attempts to prevent the dre falling off one shoulder; 2. One shoulder appears higher than the other; 3. One of the collar-bones, or one side of the breast-bone, appears fuller than the other; 4. One hip appears to project; 5. One leg Etfipears shorter than the other; 6. There is a peculiarity in the manner of walking, one foot being swung round and the shoulder thrown forward. When the girl reaches the age of twelve or thirteen (for this disease is very rare in boys), she becomes evidently twisted, and the spine is found to have a umed a serpentine form. In rei'erence to the treatment of this kind of distortion, it appears that very opposite methods have been succe ful j thus, some patients have been confined lor months to the same position; another violently exercised; a no the i" A A [s. 366]