The Henderson Trust Lecture. The development of the vertebral canal and associated neuro-physiological abnormalities.

In this lecture I have attempted to demonstrate that the size of the lumbar vertebral canal has clinical importance. The canal develops very early in life, and impaired growth at this time affects other growing systems. The patient with spinal stenosis has more than a spinal disadvantage. Improved obstetric and childhood care has the potential not only to prevent some of the troublesome back problems, but also to influence the health and neurological status in adult life. I hope that the first Henderson Trustees would have been encouraged by this lecture. It supports some of the philosophy that stimulated an interest in Phrenology. In the lumbar spine at least, the container-the vertebral canal-seems to have an important relationship to the function of its neurological contents.