Clinical manual for the study of medical cases / edited by James Finlayson.

Date:
1878
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Clinical manual for the study of medical cases / edited by James Finlayson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    64/616 (page 36)
    formation, weight and muscular development, the apparent age as compared with the real age, the expression and com- plexion of the face, the presence of dropsy, the posture, and the like, come in here. An examination of the skin for erup- tions of any kind, and a survey of the limbs and joints, for any signs of disease, likewise fall to this portion of the investigation. Such facts as glandular enlargements may either be stated in this connection, or in a more detailed manner in connection with the regions where they are noticed; the extent of these affections usually determines our choice in such cases. The Internal examination may be subdivided into the Regions of the Head, Thorax, and Abdomen. The Head includes the great organ of the Nervous system, and as the spinal and peripheral nervous systems cannot well be separated from the cerebral, in any preliminary examination, we include all parts of the nervous system in this regional division. The Thorax contains the great central organs of the Eespiratory and Circulatory systems, and as these cannot be duly examined without considering the peripheral portions, they also are dealt with all together under this region. The Abdomen, likewise, as a region, supplies us with two systems — the Digestive and the Genito-urinary —for a complete ex- ploration in their whole extent. It is supposed to be an advantage to begin always with the External part of the examination, as some points of it are other- wise apt to be overlooked; it can usually be rapidly dismissed unless, indeed, it constitutes the principal part of the case. In the Internal regions Professor Sanders recommends us to deal with the systems whose great organs are contained in the same cavity before proceeding to the others; to discuss the heart and lungs in sequence, for example, before proceeding to the digestive and genito-urinaiy systems and their organs contained in the abdomen. We begin with the system which seems from the history or from the general aspect of the case to be the one most essentially affected, and we also, of course, consider it in much fuller detail.