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Features Departments Information |
 Stanford T. Shulman, MD, Head, Division of Infectious Diseases of Children’s Memorial Hospital, collects stamps with medical themes. |
STAMPS: ORTHOPAEDICS STANFORD T. SHULMAN, MD aSpring 2002 In keeping with the orthopaedic theme that dominates this issue of The Child’s Doctor, I have selected five stamps from a variety of countries that illustrate young people who appear to have orthopaedic disabilities. In Third World countries in past decades, a large proportion of orthopaedic disability developed as sequelae of acute poliomyelitis, an infection that has been almost completely eliminated from the globe. 
 The red and orange stamp from Mali (West Africa) depicts one individual on crutches, another walking with a cane, and a third who appears quite short. Very atrophic legs are apparent in the youngster portrayed on the orange and black stamp from Rwanda. The Thai stamp (blue and gray) shows a boy using his crutches to climb stairs, while the black and yellow stamp from Transkei (a former South African homeland) appears to center on a young man who is receiving therapy for clubfeet. The green and orange stamp from the Philippines portrays a youngster utilizing his wheelchair for mobility. 
  The early pioneers of the field of orthopaedics, such as Nicholas André (1658–1742), who coined the term orthopaedics, and Jean-André Venel (1740–91), who founded the first orthopaedic institute (Orbe, Switzerland in 1780) and probably originated surgical orthopaedics, have not been portrayed on stamps. Therefore, you do not see their beaming visages here. |