lastic webbing bandage being employed to retain
them and reinforce the pressure. The padding is renewed at intervals
of three weeks or a month; in successful cases the projection may
ultimately be replaced by a hollow.

_Treatment of Abscess._--If a spinal abscess is causing symptoms or is
approaching the surface, and there appears to be a risk of mixed
infection, the abscess should be asperated and injected with iodoform
emulsion.

_Treatment of Cord-Complications._--Extension is applied, in the first
instance, to the head or to the lower limbs, or to both, while some
form of pillow is inserted at the seat of the disease; if the
condition is merely one of oedema, the symptoms usually yield with
remarkable rapidity; if they persist, in spite of extension, for three
to six weeks, recourse should be had to _laminectomy_; it is usual to
find evidence of mechanical pressure by granulation tissue, pus, or
displaced bone, the relieving of which is followed by disappearance of
the nerve symptoms. Some authors are lukewarm in their advocacy of
this operation, but we can cite a number of cases in which, after
laminectomy, an apparently hopeless paraplegia has been entirely got
rid of.

#Prognosis.#--As regards the _survival of persons who have suffered
from Pott's disease_, and as having an important bearing on prognosis,
it may be noted that surgical museums contain many specimens
illustrating the "cured" stage of the disease, in which the bodies of
the vertebrae, formerly the seat of tuberculous destruction or caries,
are represented by a ridge-shaped mass of new bone, forming a solid
union between the segments above and below (Fig. 211), or the remains
of the original bodies may still be identifiable, although they are
surrounded and fused together by new bone. The latter condition is the
more liable to a recrudescence of the tuberculous infection. Further,
it may be inferred from the number of "cured" cases of Pott's disease
met with in everyday life, that the malady is one from which recovery
may be expected.

The cervical cases are recognised by the "telescoping" of the neck,
the head and thorax being unduly approximated; the dorsal cases by the
well-known _hump_ or _hunch-back_, in which the spinous processes of
the collapsed vertebrae constitute the apex of the hump; the thorax is
telescoped from above downwards, the ribs are crowded together, the
lower ones, it may be, inside the iliac crests, and the sternum
proj