The evening herald. [volume] (Shenandoah, Pa.) 1891-1966, 1897-02-09

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Column In It's Normal Position-Treat-
ment Takes Nine Months.
The remarkable communication which
DR.. Calot recently made to the French
Academic de Medicine proves once more,
despite the opinion emitted by M. Bru-
ncticre, that medical science is far from
being q failure I'm this century of progress.
Medical science has given speech TO the
dumb, and now it s%traightens out huuch-
backs. Have we not also heard latterly-
rather vaguely, It is truc-that they arc
going to give sight to the blindY
Tt is unqucstionahly true that the gener-
ntions which follow ours viii no longer
have the spectacle of those unfortunate
beings known as ~hunchhacks. deformed
and ridiculous looking, and who suffer
from their inflrmity all their life.
DIR. Calot undertakes to straighten out
h~unchbacks. He has already accomplished
this prodigy I'm the case of 81 subjects, and
what is fully as marvellous as his discovery
is that all his operations have succeeded.
1t should, however, be stated that children
alone have been treated.
To give an exact idea of his method of
procedure Dr.. Calot submits q series of
photographs, showinga numborof hunch-
back children, and one instantaneous
photograph taken during an operation.
DR.. Calot is a man Of about 40 years of
g He has a pleasant, frank looking
face, with a gentle expression. His de-
meanor is modest and entirely symra-
thotic. He is attached to the medical staff
OF the Bothscnild hospital at Berk-sur-
Mer, which, as is wen known, cares for
children afflicted with spinal disease and
consumption.
Struck with the wretched condition Of
the poor children, the doctor studied for q
long time the question of the feasibility of
correcting their dufOrmities. He weighed
the dangers which radical and apparently
brutal correction might entail tor the life
of the child or for the working of the spi-
nal column, and he sought for a long time
O way to mathematically obtain this cor
rection and to discover the resource pos
sessed by nature to repair damage done to
the vertobral column either by disease or
by surgical experiments.
What makes q h~unchbackY Hois a person
whose vertebral column has broken down.
What should be done to correct this2 First,
pick up the vortebral column, s~traightcn
it out and keep it upright by an apparatus
until nature allows it to knit together.
This operation is made when the patient
is under the influence of chlorOfOrm. The
child Is laid on it's stomach. Two nurses
at it's head and two at it's feet pull so as to
stretch the child. Two others support him
under the umbilical region and under the
sternum. With his hands the doctor makes
ar extremely vigorous pressure on the
gibbosity, proceeding with method until
all the vertebre have gone down to the
level or are even underneath the ncighbOr-
ing vertebre.
One perceivcs under ones hand and
sometimes even hears bony crackings,
which are evidence of the impairment Of
the two spinal segments and of the slip.
ping of the vertebre one over the other.
The time required to arrange the spinal
column properly is from one to Two min
utes.
The doctor has not had an accident in 81
cases. He has even been surprised at the
facility with which the operation has been
done.
The great difficulty Of the operation was
to maintain the lo0sencd spinal column in
its normal position. The slightest false
movement might bring about a rupture
of the spinal cord and so aus instant
death. So the doctor invented an appara-
tus I'm which the patient is placed. The ap-
paratus lis constructed as follows:
a circular bandage Of plaster is laid on
a bed of wadding. Then over the gibbosi-
ty are plugs Of wadding, laid crosswise,
allowing of the tightening of the plaster
band without having to fear for the child
any inconvenience in the functions of the
abdominal thoracic viscera. Ten to 10
minutes suffice for the construction of the
apparatus. After that time the plaster is
firm, the child can be brought to, and the
operation is over.
This plaster apparatus should remain on
the body three or -four months. When 1t
IS taken OFF, the back is flat. Then the first
apparatus is replaced by a similar n for
the same length of time. After the second
or third apparatus the child is allowed to
walk with a corset. That is the period Of
convalescence. The absolute removal Of
the deformlty has taken exactly ten
months.
OF course it should be understood that
so far DR.. Calot has operated only upon
children whose humps were just formed
He has never attempted anything Of the
kind upon adults. But it is something to
be able from now on TO declare that there
need be no more h|unchbaoks in the world.
The Academic de Medicine congratu-
lated DIR. CalOt on his communication and
appointed two Of its members to make re-
ports on this interesting quesJion.-Le
MOnde ulusUre.