Electro-physiology and electro-therapeutics : showing the best methods for the medical uses of electricity / By Alfred C. Garratt.

the foot, for example, the patient, by throwing the weight of the body upon the member as in the act of lounging in fencing, can bring the knee over the point of the foot, (toes,) when the atro- phy of the member does not amount to, or approach to, a loss of one fourth in its circumference,— then tenotomy is not required. The means by which, in such cases, tenotomy is superseded, are those already recommended — diligent, painstaking manip- ulations, appropriate mechanical supports, and appropriate (muscular automatic) exercises. The whole muscular system is so arranged and balanced that on any one part of the body, or of a limb, we find one set of muscles for a particular motion, and on the opposite side we find another set for the opposite motion. This is a law of muscular arrangement and motion: on one side of a limb are the flexors, and on the other the extensors; on the one side the pronators, and on the other the supinators; the adductors and abductors, and so on. The power of the respective antagoniz- ing sets are' by no means ecpial, although the habitual function of counterbalance for each other is very nearly equal. Now, if this functional equilibrium is disturbed, the counterpoise is lost, and the limb is drawn towards the stronger and pre- vailingly contracted muscles, and consequently the extended antagonisms arc thrown quite out of their field of action. As a general rule, the flexors are stronger than the extensors, the pronators are stronger than the supinators, and the adductors are stronger than the abductors. For this reason, we are in- clined to the modern view that the gastrocnemii and soleus muscles of the calf of the leg are the flexors of the foot; such, in fact, is the nomenclature adopted by Dr. Detmold, of New York, as also by MM. Rudolphi and Von Walther. According to Dr. Detmold, the club-foot that results from spas- modic contraction is more difficult to cure than any other. The club-foot after paralysis of the muscles is much easier cured, but it necessarily requires a long time. The club-foot from gradual muscle contraction, if without spasm or paralysis, admits of the most favorable prognosis, such being far more readily cured.