A simple mode of tabulating symptoms in clinical records : with a schedule for taking cases / by W. Ogle.

  • William Ogle
Date:
[between 1870 and 1879?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A simple mode of tabulating symptoms in clinical records : with a schedule for taking cases / by W. Ogle. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    mg, breathing before voice, voice before cough. Again, teeth before tongue, tongue before throat, throat before stomach, &c., instead of vice versa, or without any order. One other advantage of the schedule and method in combination is, that the greatest possible accuracy is faci¬ litated, and that with a brevity that must be seen to be fully realised. For instance, in the out-patient room, with¬ out any assistance from pupils, at the rate of forty patients in the hour, I can take notes that are of material assist¬ ance. A symptom when first recorded occupies, it may be, several lines in writing, but ever afterwards it may be condensed into a few words, or even letters. Thus, T. cl.; b. r. in this its proper place, signifies not only ‘ tongue clean ; bowels act regularlybut also implies that any unfavour¬ able ‘ alimentary’ symptoms previously noted are now absent. I conclude this brief paper by the following pertinent and important extract from the Autobiography of the late Sir Benjamin Brodie, p. 55 : ‘ During the summer of 1804 a friend of mine, of the name of Jeffreys, was house-surgeon of the hospital, and my intimacy with him enabled me to pursue my studies there with great advantage. He had more knowledge of his profession than most young men of his standing. In the early part of the day I was always with him in the wards; and in the evening we were generally together. It was from him that I first learned the importance of keeping written notes of cases, a practice which I con¬ tinued ever afterwards. These notes I have carefully pre¬ served. They now form many thick quarto volumes of manuscripts, to which (and even to the earliest of them) I not unfrequently refer with advantage even at this ad¬ vanced period of my professional life. My custom has been to take short notes at the bedside of the patients in the day, and to expand them with the aid of my memory in the even¬ ing. Thus they became an exercise of the memory, and instead oj weakening tended to strengthen that important faculty. After an experience of nearly fifty years, I am satisfied
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