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[Copyrighted by John Ridlon, M.D.]
Spondylitis, also called Pott's disease, spinal caries, etc.. may be the result of traumatism, syphilis, or tuberculosis; or it may follow scarlet fever, measles, whooping cough, etc., and appear to be dependent upon the morbific germ of those diseases; but however it begins, or whatever be the specific germ assumed to be the cause, the symptoms presenting and the indications for treatment are the same, and all cases sooner or later show evidences of the presence of the tubercular bacillus. It is probable that the disease may commence in any of the connective Fig. 1.—Lumbar and dorsal spondylitis commencing, a. Opening in anterior surface of second lumbar vertebra, b. Similar opening in the twelfth dorsal vertebra, c. Beginning erosion of the eleventh dorsal vertebra. tissues composing the spinal column, but there is little satisfactory evidence to show that it ever begins elsewhere than in the