The daddy of the daddy of foot orthoses

Members do not see these Ads. Sign Up.

Doing some research for one of my upcoming presentations in Belgium http://www.arteveldehogeschool.be/elpa/podologie/lustrum/
- this is the wikipedia entry for Royal Whitman snr:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Emerson_Whitman Interesting...

Royal Whitman jnr's obituary is here: http://jbjs.org/pdfaccess.ashx?ResourceID=15305&PDFSource=17

I note with interest: "Dr. Whitman was particularly insistent upon a thorough knowledge of mechanical principles, the pathology of deformities, and the observance of these in therapeusis. Braces to him were intended for the support- of the trunk or limbs, and not for the correction of deformities. First an equinovarus of the foot, a flexion at the hip or the knee, or a rigid flat foot had to be corrected; then, and then only, might the surgeon apply a brace. Woe to the assistant who did not obey this rule!"

So somewhere along the line we got to the idea that braces, i.e. foot orthoses, should "correct the deformities"- right?

Here's a biographical sketch from a couple of years ago:
http://www.springerlink.com/content/lk84v031j072w452/fulltext.pdf

And here's the paper itself:
http://jbjs.org/pdfaccess.ashx?ResourceID=53419&PDFSource=17

I'll be discussing the orthoses design he recommended in both of my lectures in Ghent.

Does anyone have a reference for Newton M. Schaffer first describing a "Schaffer plate"?

 

Hi Simon,

Whitman would have his orthoses made at Otto Schuster's laboratory.

Ottos' nephew was Dick Schuster who delivered the orthoses as a boy.

Thought you might be interested in this.

Regards,

Stanley

 

No real help

might be in here

Selected Essays on Orthopaedic Surgery [Hardcover] - $ 65 from amazon - http://www.amazon.com/Selected-Essays-Orthopaedic-Surgery-Shaffer/dp/B003ZVNYLI

Kevin posted this awhile ago may help - Schuster. A History of Orthopedics in Podiatry.pdf