A treatise on pathological anatomy / by Carl Rokitansky ; translated from the German, with additions of diagnosis from Schoenlein, Skoda, and others by John C. Peters.

  • Rokitansky, Carl von, 1804-1878.
Date:
1845
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on pathological anatomy / by Carl Rokitansky ; translated from the German, with additions of diagnosis from Schoenlein, Skoda, and others by John C. Peters. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    Jt has long been admitted that the great impulse which has lately been given to the studies of anatomy, physiology, micro- scopy, and pathological chemistry, had its origin in Germany ; faint rumors, too, have reached this country of equally great ad- vances made in pathology and pathological anatomy, and many expectations have been excited as to the nature of the rich har- vest said to have been reaped by the proverbially profound and studious Germans. It is already considered a disgrace for an American physician to be unacquainted with the labors of the French, English, and Irish pathologists, and, as the Germans have now outstripped their neighbors, the time is not far distant when the same stigma will rest on those who are ignorant of German pathological literature. Hence, we think that we need make but few excuses for undertaking the translation of any reputable German work on morbid anatomy, and are still less in- clined to make any for selecting that of Rokitansky; but we would fain beg the indulgence of our readers for the manner in which our task has been accomplished, as it was no easy one. Rokitansky's book is what it professes to be : it is morbid anato- my in its densest and most compact form, scarcely ever alleviated by cases, histories, or hypotheses ; it is just such a work as might be expected from its author, who is said to have written in it the results of his experience gained in the careful examina- tion of over 12,000 bodies, and who is possessed of a truly mar- vellous power of observing and amassing facts ;* but his style of writing is often rough, and even ungrammatical, although his difficult and uncouth language is ever forcible and explicit, and * See British and Foreign Med. Rev. Jan. 1843, p. 84.