Case of Talipes Varus. 
By Buckminster Brown, M.I). TALIPES /VARUS. 
BY BUCKMINSTER BROWN, M.D. 
Read before the Boston Society for Medical Improvement. 
The lad who is here this evening, to be examined bv the members 
of the Society, was born with double talipes varus. He is from 
Detroit, Mich., and is now 9 years of age. The efforts of his 
parents, from the time of his birth to the present, have been un- 
wearied to obtain a cure of the deformity, and no expense or 
pains have been spared. The following extracts from a letter 
written by the boy’s mother, previous to his coming to Boston for 
treatment, give a brief history of the case up to that time. 
11 Our boy was born with both feet very badly misshapen. At 
the age of eight months he was operated upon by a surgeon, who 
divided the tendon of the heel and the ligament in the hollow of 
the foot, ***** but the feet remained the same as at first. 
At the age of two years and four months, the child was operated 
upon again, by a surgeon who was confident of success, and he re- 
mained under his care two years, during which time the tendo- 
Achillis and the ligament on the inside of the fo.ot were cut five 
times each, making ten incisions in the two feet. All sorts of 
apparatus were used, from a single splint to a harness reaching 
from the waist to the toes, weighing not much less than five pounds. 
Chloroform was administered during the cutting, and paregoric 
and opium without stint given to enable the little sufferer to bear 
his torture. At the end of two years his health seemed to be 
giving way, and we released him from the stocks. That he lived 
through all, seems a wonder; that his temperament should be ner- 
vous and his disposition irritable, seems but natural. He is now 
eight and a half years old; his feet are as bad as ever they were, 
I think—and notwithstanding our hard experience, we are anxious 2 
to place him under your care, in case you could encourage us to 
believe that he could be made better.” 
The plaster casts which I have now in my hand arc from the 
moulds of this boy’s feet, taken when he first came under my care. 
(See Figures 1 and 2.) It will be seen that they present some 
unusual peculiarities, consisting chiefly in the rounded, marble-like 
prominences standing out upon the dorsum or top of the feet, and 
in the marks of the cicatrices and adhesions which were formed 
Figure 1. 
Figure 2. 
Copies of casts taken when the patient came to Boston. 
between the skin, fascia, tendons and cellular tissue at the place of 
the early operations, all of which are well represented by the 
casts. The feet were completely turned inward, and rotated on 
their own axes, and the patient in walking threw one over the other, 
as is usual in such cases. 
Figure 3. 
Figure 4. 
Copies of casts taken after treatment. 
The left foot was cured, or nearly in the condition you now see 
it, in about six weeks. (See Figures 3 and 4.) In the right, how- 3 
ever, the cicatrices and adhesions above referred to were far more 
rigid and unyielding. 
The free and persevering use of strong mercurial ointment ap- 
peared to have a decided effect in producing absorption and soften- 
ing of these results of inflammation, and the member was gradually 
brought to its present state, which it will be seen is that of a per- 
fect foot. The appearance and shape of the members, and the 
action of the joints (which last is in all these cases the most diffi- 
cult to acquire), will be found, upon examination, to be equal to 
that of feet which have never been malformed. 
Boston, July, 1859.