A treatise on the principles and practice of medicine : designed for the use of practitioners and students of medicine / by Austin Flint.
- Austin Flint I
- Date:
- 1884
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A treatise on the principles and practice of medicine : designed for the use of practitioners and students of medicine / by Austin Flint. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Lamar Soutter Library, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Lamar Soutter Library at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.
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![THE PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE MEDICINE. INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. Scope of the term Medicine—Use of the term in contradistinction to Surgery and Obstetrics— Subdivisions of the different departments of medicine, or specialties—The general object of this work—Meaning of the phrase Principles and Practice of Medicine—Definition of Path- ology—Division into General and Special Pathology—Nomenclature of Diseases—Subdivi- sions of General Pathology, namely. Morbid anatomy including morbid changes of the fluids of the body; Etiology; Sym])tomatology ; Diagnosis; Prognosis; Prophylaxis, and Therapeutics—Relations of these subdivisions to Special, as well as General, Pathology— Definition of Disease—Definition of Health—Relationship of Pathology to Physiology— Progress of pathological knowledge. MEDICINE, in the largest sense of the term, comprehends everything pertaining to the knowledge and cure of disease. In a more restricted sense, the term is used in contradistinction to Surgery and Obstetrics. The latter are properly departments of medicine in the comprehensive sense of the term; and, although they may be cultivated separately, they cannot be disconnected from principles which are common to them and to medicine in its restricted sense. The medical profession embraces all who devote them- selves to the study and practice of medicine proper, surgery, and obstetrics, either separately or combined. The physician is a member of the profession who devotes his attention to the diseases which belong to the department of medicine proper, i. e., medicine in the restricted sense of the term. The physician may, or may not, undertake the duties which belong to surgery and obstetrics. In this country most physicians are, of necessity, to a greater or less extent, also surgeons and obstetricians, in other words, general practi- tioners. It is only in cities and large towns that practitioners can devote themselves exclusively, or chiefly, to surgery and obstetrics as separate de- partments of medicine. The distinction of physician, surgeon, and obstetri- cian, in this country, is purely conventional. The only degree conferred by our universities and medical colleges is that of Doctor of Medicine, which authorizes the practice of either or all the departments, and the same is true of licenses to^practise medicine. The division of medicine into the three departments which have been named is natural, and has contributed to the knowledge acquired in each de- {)artment. Subdivisions have also been found convenient and useful. Tlie latter are commonly known as specialties, and they who devote themselves to particular subdivisions are called specialists. The more important of the sub-](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21198135_0027.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
