The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-02-17
DEFoRM1TIEs OF THE YOUNG.

DEFORMITIES OF THE YOUNG.
How Children May Become Vigorous
Men and Women.
From BabVhood.
Years ago, in Paris, Chauvisser made
some Investigations to ascertain what pro-
portion Of children were born deformed
and he made record OF the fact that out of
$4,000 newborn infants only 132 were In
any way abnormal. Even this small per-
centage did not come within the definition
| OF ordinary deformities, as they were
actual monstrosities, in no ways re-
sembling the greater or less deviations
from the normal that we generally include
under our term. Other observers have
noted similar facts, indicating that nature
gives her children q fair chance so far as
| their actual conformation 10 concerned,
| and that we must look to other than pre-
natal influences to explain the occurrence
| of the deformities and tendencies to I'M
equal development that we actually find in
| later life.
The deformities Of children may be either
oongenitsl or acquired. OF these congeni-
tai deformities, among which is that known
| as talipes, or club foot, which manifests
| itself ia several different forms, and also
certain deformities which originate from
! congenital nervous LESSONS resulting in var-
| Gus paralysis. we shall not speak. But by
far the larger proportion of the deformtties
| of children are, as we should anticipate
| from De Chauvisser's statistics, acquired
| through disease or accident; and as these
are, to a certain extent, preventable, they
seem naturally 60 claim the larger share Of
our attention here.
There are two diseases very prevalent
among children, which are practically re-
| sponsible for the majority OF deformites
among them, excluding those which are
congonital or the direct result Of accident
and these diseases are Tachitis, commonly
called ricketts,, and tuberculosis. Both Of
| these diseases are constitutional affections,
and it Is partially true that a child may
| have either one of these and not present
any marked deformity. tuberculosis. it is
known, may develop in the lungs
alone, or in the brain, causing a menin-
| gifts or other serious affection, and yet give
no external sign Of its presence. But on the
other hand, some of the most serious bone
diseases among children, such as Potts dis
ease OF the spine, or hip joint disease, or
knee joint disease, which are some of the
most deforming affections common to child
hood, are in many cases only the manifesto
tiOn OF tuberculosis which has been unsus-
pocted until discovered in these localities
where IL leaves its banaful trace In short
ened leg or curved spine, or lifelong lame.
| ness.
without leaving any startling mark of its
presence In the bones, In such mild cases
indigestion and fretfulness in the infant
and late teethiDg may be its principal signs
to the ordinary observer. But even here
an experienced eye may discern some slight
deviation from the normal in the ribs or the
shape Of the head, or else whore.
The majority Of rachitic children do, how
ever, give uumistakable evidence Of its de-
forming tendencies in various parts Of the
skeleton, the most common being the bones
OF the head, of the radius or lower arm, the
ribs. the breast bone. the spine, and notices
ably in tho lower limbs.
The chest Of a severely rachitic child Is
cuiiously irregular and undeveloped, owing
to these changes in the ends Of the ribs, and
afBo to the pushing upward of the breast
bone. The ribs, as they swing around from
the spine to become attached in front TO the
breast bone, are pierced out by cartridges
which complete their length In front to the
extent OF an inch or more. At this point
OF juncture the ends of the ribs In raohitic
children swell, these engagements ri wing to
the chest what is called a beaded appear
| ance. The bones. being softened
from disease, are unable to resist the
pressure Of the external atmosphere
as they do in health. therefore they are
often hattened or depressed, while the
| breast-bone may he unnaturally prominent,
| breast. Not tnfrequently we see children
who exhibit a one-sided deformity of the
| chest, the ribs on one side only presenting
the anomaly referred to- or one side may
be unnaturally vaulted and the other fat
tened, with or without the pigeon-breast
deformity. These cases are generally due
TO ricketts,, and may be associated with a
lateral curvature OF the spine, with which
| certain degree Of chest deformity is gem
orally present; but the writer has seen cases
of this chest deformity in which there was
no trace Of any spine deviation.
| Severe cases Of pleurisy in weakly chill
dren not infrequently induce somewhat
similar changes in the shape of the chest.
| Here the lung, which has been embarrassed
| by the effusion OF water in the chest, fails
| to expand after the fluid has disappeared,
and the chest walls fall in to fill the vacuum
| created by the retracted lung. This type OF
| chest deformlty is more amenable to treat
ment than such as result from rickets,
| being, as one may say, more acute form,
where the bone changes going on in slower
and more chronic affections have not had
an opportunity to occur.
| The nature of rickets, which is believed
| to be a constitutional disease due to MANU-
triton, explains many of its manifestations.
1t is not solely disease of the bones, but its
traces are most readily and most frequently
left in the skeleton. Whether as some be-
lieve it is solely caused by fermentation In
the food Of the child, who is improperly fed
on diet containing too large proportions of
sugar and starch, the result of which is the
| production Of Tactic acid which dssolves tine
bone salts as they are forming, and
leaves the softer elements in undue
| proportion in the skeleton; or whether 1t
| is a constitutional affection which
may also be induced by impure air and
lack Of sunlight, with an absence of the
fatty element in food, OF whether some Of
the other theories about it are the correct
ones, we do not precisely know. But the
improper feeding of infants is generally be-
lieved to be a great cause of its occurrence,
conjoined with other unhygienic influences
already suggested and practically the
softened bones, permitting, under enoourag-
ing circumstances. uneven and one-sided
or unsymmetrical deformities, are the i'm
mediate cause of such unsymmetrical de-
| Yelopment among children.
Knock knees and bow legs are two of the
most common results of ricketts,, most fire.
quently seen with boys, but this partly on
account OF their dress. which exhibits the
deformity. The bowling may be limited
only to the upper part Of the leg (shighi, or
it may extend TO the lower part or NAV in