CLUBBING, in cabbages, turnips, and other plants of the genus brassica, a diseased growth of tubercular excrescences in the upper part of the root or lower part of the stem, caused by the larvae of the cabbage fly (q.v.), and of other insects, by which the vigorous growth of the plant is prevented, and crops are often much injured. It is com mon for gardeners to cut away these excrescences, with their contained larva, in plant ing out young cabbages, etc. ; and where they are not so numerous that the injury done by the knife is necessarily great, this plan succeeds very well. Dressings of quicklime, wood-ashes, etc., have been recommended, and appear to have proved partially success ful in preventing this evil, probably by deterring the parent insect from approaching to lay her eggs; but change of crop, when practicable, is of all things the most com mendable. C. is sometimes confounded with anbury (q.v.), from which it is quite distinct.
(Lat. tali:pes) is a distortion or twisting of the foot by one or more of its muscles being permanently shortened. It may exist frombirth, or occur in early child hood after convulsive fits. Surgeons recognize four varieties of C.: turning inwards (rams), outwards (maps), downwards with elevation of the heel (equinus), or upwards with depression of the heel (calcaneus).
As age advances, the bones alter in form from the pressure exerted upon them, the ligaments shorten, and the foot becomes rigidly molded in its unnatural position.
It cripples the person's movements, and iu many instances has proved a great afflic tion. Lord Byron's whole life seems to have been embittered by one of his feet being inverted.
Although Lorenz, in 1784, cut the tondo Achillis to lower the heel in talipes equinus, yet, owing chiefly to the dangers of cutting across tendons, club-foot was practically incurable till 1731, when Dr. Little, of London, having himself a club-foot, after seeking relief from many surgeons at home and abroad, found his way to Dr. Stromeyer, at Erlangen. This ingenious surgeon introduced a narrow-bladed knife, and divided the tendons of the contracted muscles with such a small external wound that scarcely any inflammation resulted. Dr. Little being cured, published a treatise on the subject, and at the present day no deformity of the foot is considered irremediable. However, it must be remembered that the division of tendons must be followed by judicious manipu lations, and generally by the application of some suitable apparatus to prevent the foot returning to its former position. Of such apparatus, Scarpa's shoe, as it is termed, may be mentioned as the one most frequently in use.
See LYCOPODIACE2E.
See Sunrus.