Book Description

Excerpt from Therapeutics of Infancy and Childhood Much of what is contained in this work may be claimed as common property. Much of it I have taught before. Indeed, very few books can ever be written that will be entirely new. Paediatrics is not new to-day; nor was it so when, in 1860, I established the first systematic course, in our country, of clinical instruction in the diseases of children. Having since that time appeared before the medical public with essays and monographs only, I was repeatedly reminded by friends of my obligation to submit to the profession which has afforded me so many facilities and advantages a compact picture of the therapeutics of infancy and childhood as I have it in my mind. A large part of this work is devoted to diet and hygiene, a good deal also to the consideration of the action of medicines. For, indeed, I believe in medicines. Advancing years and experience during a period of increasing exactness in medical methods have rather strengthened my belief than otherwise. What the knife is to the surgeon, drugs are to the physician. The knife does not make the surgeon, nor do medicines make the physician; both, however, are indispensable. To employ them with benefit takes skill and experience, both individual and collective, as also judgment and honesty. Indications for the administration of medicines are furnished by etiology and symptomatology. Both of these occupy a prominent place in this book. Without a diagnosis of the morbid process and of its evolution, and without the appreciation of its influence on the patient, no rational therapy can be thought of. Consequently I have taken particular pains to offer clear, though brief, statements of differential diagnoses. 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."