Accueil / Albums / Technology / Medicine 63
- Ferri's instruments
- Chair to assist in straightening of the spine
Chair to assist in straightening of the spine Where frequent lying down on a sofa in the day-time, and swinging frequently for a short time by the hands or head, with loose dress, do not relieve a beginning distortion of the back; recourse may be had to a chair with stuffed moveable arms for the purpose of suspending the weight of the body by cushions under the arm-pits, like resting on crutches, or like the leading strings of infants. From the top of the back of the same chair a curved steel bar may also project to suspend the body occasionally, or in part by the head, like the swing above mentioned. The use of this chair is more efficacious in straightening the spine, than simply lying down horizontally; as it not only takes off the pressure of the head and shoulders from the spine, but at the same time the inferior parts of the body contribute to draw the spine straight by their weight. - The Pillory
It would be impossible to enumerate the offences for which Englishmen were pilloried: among them were treason, sedition, arson, blasphemy, witch-craft, perjury, wife-beating, cheating, forestalling, forging, coin-clipping, tree-polling, gaming, dice-cogging, quarrelling, lying, libelling, slandering, threatening, conjuring, fortune-telling, “prigging,” drunkenness, impudence. One man was set in the pillory for delivering false dinner invitations; another for a rough practical joke; another for selling an injurious quack medicine. All sharpers, beggars, impostors, vagabonds, were liable to be pilloried.