Book Description

Excerpt from The Student's Guide to Medical Diagnosis The art of diagnosis would be readily acquired if the symptoms Of each disease were in all cases the same; but this is not so. Although therefore the rules laid down will generally sufice, yet you will occasionally meet with cases in which the accustomed signs are absent, or in which unusual symptoms are present. For instance, no complaint has more strongly marked signs than peritonitis the excessive and general pain of the abdomen, the great tenderness on pressure, the rapid, wiry pulse - and yet you may meet with fatal peritonitis with scarcely any pain, or with out tenderness, or with a pulse not above the normal standard. In order to obtain the necessary Skill in diagnosis, it will be requisite that you should practise the taking Of cases. You should record the symptoms and phy sical signs present in each case, the order in which the symptoms have been developed, the treatment adopted, the progress of the disease, and, if it terminate fatally, you should add the morbid appearances discovered after death. You will readily understand that unless some plan is adopted, there is great probability that you will either encumber your description Of the dis ease with a number Of unnecessary details, or overlook important facts. I have therefore added the following suggestions for a plan, which you may perhaps find useful until experience enables you to propose a better. Commence with the name and address of your patient, his age, and occupation. - The age is important, because many diseases, such as cancer, are chiefly found at cer tain periods of life. The nature of the occupation Often gives a clue to the complaint; as, for instance, painters and other workers in lead are especially liable to colic and paralysis. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.