Copping Coping With the Braced Limbs

Harold Copping illustrated an edition of Charles Dickens' classic, "A Christmas Carol." One of the paintings of Bob Cratchit and Tiny Tim in the book shows Tiny Tim wearing braces on his lower limbs. Several diagnoses of Tiny Tim's ailment have been suggested in the past but based on the details of Copping's painting we suggest that he had rickets. The above-knee braces with uprights only on the lateral side of the limbs may have been given to prevent genu valgum, a common deformity in childhood rickets.