The Waterbury Democrat., 1931-06-11
HOW CURVATURE OF THE SPINE IS
 OFTEN CREATED
Chronic Underfeeding and MalnutritiOn Will Fre= quently Bring It on Say Physicians

| Philadelphia, June II, (UP)-Cur- | Philedlphia, June 11-UP)-Cur-
 vature of the spine is frequently
 caused by chronic underfeeding and
 malnutrition, physicians attending the section on othopedic surgery of the sand annual session of the | American Medical Association, were
 told to-day by Dr Eben J. Carey, of
 Marquette University, school Of | medicine, Milwaukee.
 ! Curvature of the spine, or scoliosis l is the result of a disturbance of bal ance in the delicate and complicated l motor system of the back, he said. Weakening and possible paralysis of any of the multiple combinations and bones may cause it. Since this
 muscular degeneration does not take place uniformly, there is an unequal pull on the spine, causing it to be pulled out of shape
 pr Carey demonstrated the infin- itely varied possibilities for change
 with an ingenious model of the spine | which he has constructed of wood
 en blocks representing the vertebrae and steel springs representing the
 muscles. By releasing the various ; springs he reproduced different | forms of this abnormality | Numerous investigators have 1 shown, Dr Carey related, how mus
 cle growth is retarded in undernour- l ished children and animals. He be- lieves there is a definite correlation
 between malnutrition during the first. ten years of life and scoliosis
 without a definite cause.
 I The use of N-rayS and radium in | treating two diseases of the thyroid l gland known as toxic goiter and hy- r.-tl l, l ie-,,, i, fo,, 1p yond the stage of Experimentation
 that the very diagnosis of the con- ditions calls for at least a trial, ac-
 cording to Dr J. Thompson Stevens, of MontClair, N. J., before the sec tion of radiology.
 "Of course, if there is large tumor of the gland it must be re- moved surgically, but even in these
 cases radiation treatment is helpful | before and after the operation" pr | Stevens said.
 He distinguished between the two conditions as follows: ToXis goiter is
 caused by an increase in numbers of normally secreting cells of the thyr-
 roid gland, forming a tumor, while | hyperthyroidism is the disease in
 which the cells are not increased. but
 are over-a ctive, and in which no tu-
 nor is visible.
 In a series of 270 cases in his own | experience, PAS or 90 per cent, were
 cured and F others were improved, | leaving 12 who were not improved
 and three who died, Dr Stevens re-
 ported.
 A control for Addisons disease, an | invariably fatal malady known to
 medical science for nearly a century, | is in the process of clinical devel- | opment, Dr l.. G. Roundtree, of the
 Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn, re- | ported.
 The disease. which attacks the suprarenal glands, located just above
 the kidneys, runs it's course swiftly, resulting in death sometime within a few weeks and seldom later than a | few months after the first appear ance of the symptoms.
 Physicians attending the conven- | ton expressed the belief that the an
 nouncement of the possible control l for the disease is the most impor-
 tant that has been made public in
 American medical research in the | past two years.