A system of clinical medicine, dealing with the diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of disease / 2nd edition.

  • Savill, Thomas Dixon, 1856-1910.
Date:
1909
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: A system of clinical medicine, dealing with the diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of disease / 2nd edition. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

    28/1012
    italicised paragraphs in Part C., the work will, it is hoped, serve as a “ clinical index of diseases ” ; for by following the plan laid down he will shortly find himself reading a description of the diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of the malady from which his patient is probably suffering; while adjacent to this are the disorders which clinically, and very often pathologically, resemble it, and for which in practice it is apt to be mistaken. Such an arrangement as that proposed must inevitably lead to some repetition, but this difficulty has been obviated to a certain extent by cross references. I would also ask the reader to remember that nothing fixes things so well in our minds, or aids us so much in tracing those analogies to which 1 shall shortly refer, as constantly looking at the same facts from a different point of view. An attempt has been made to present the various diseases in some kind of perspective by placing them as far as possible in order of importance and using different sized types. The relative importance of different subjects in medicine is largely a matter of opinion, and I cannot expect to escape criticism in this respect. It is a standing accusation against medical writers that they are careless in respect to literary style, and I fear that I shall not be found an exception. I have striven to be intelligible rather than academic ; and in general I fear that I must plead guilty to having endeavoured to follow the Duchess’s advice to Alice in Wonderland, to “ take care of the sense and the sounds will take care of themselves.” When so large an area has to be covered, a certain amount of abbreviation is indispens- able, and in order to condense my material it has been my practice to adopt a numerical method of description. Some may take exception to this, though the student will find it to his advantage in the acquisition of knowledge. I may perhaps be pardoned for adverting to certain advantages which appear to me to be associated with the method that I have adopted of approaching clinical medicine. And first let ADVANTAGES. , . b me remark that this method of diagnosis is not what has been called a “ process of exclusion.” It is a positive rather than a negative process, for by carefully considering the various causal diseases which may be in operation, and balancing the evidence for and against each, the physician is guided, not to the least improbable, but to the most probable diagnosis. The advantages of passing in rapid review all the possible diseases which may give rise to a patient’s leading symptom, are very obvious