PEDIATRICS Vol. 55 No. 1 January 1975, pp. 82
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FRANCIS GLISSON ON THE TREATMENT OF RICKETS

T. E. C. Jr. M.D.

Although Francis Glisson (1597-1677) was not the first to describe rickets, nevertheless, his treatise on rickets (1650) is generally regarded as the most important work which has yet appeared on the subject.1

A sample of Glisson's method of treating rickets follows:

To straighten the trunk of the body or to keep it straight, they use to make breast plates of whalebone put into two woollen cloths and sewed together, which they so fit to the bodies of the children that they may keep the back-bone upright, repress the sticking out of the bones, and defend the crookedness of them from a further compression. But you must be careful that they be not troublesome to the children that wear them, and therefore the best way is to fasten them to the spine of the back with a handsom [sic] string fitted to that use. The bearing them about in the nurses arms is almost agreeable to the same children, and under the same conditions; in like manner the rejoicing of the child whilst the nurse singeth, either as it sits in her lap, or is held up in her hands, as also the tossing of it up and down, and waving it to and fro. Also the drawing of the children backward and forward upon a bed or a table between the two nurses, the one holding it by the hand, the other by a foot. The two last notions seem to contribute somewhat to the erection of the crooked or bended backbone.