Abnormalities and curiosities of medicine : being an encyclopedic collection of rare and extraordinary cases ... / classified, annotated and indexed by George M. Gould and Walter L. Pyle.

  • George M. Gould
Date:
1898
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Abnormalities and curiosities of medicine : being an encyclopedic collection of rare and extraordinary cases ... / classified, annotated and indexed by George M. Gould and Walter L. Pyle. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

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    our collection wc have endeavored, so far as possible, to cite similar cases from the older and from the more recent literature. This connection suggests the question of ci-edihility in general. It need hardly lie said that the lay-journalist and newspaper reporter have usually been ignored by us, simply because experience and investigation have many times proved that a scientific fact, by pi'esentation in most lay-journals, becomes in some mysterious manner, ipw facto, a scientific caricature (or worse !), and if it is so with facts, what must be the eflPect upon re})orts based upon no fact whatsoever? It is manifestly impossible for us to guarantee the credibility of chronicles given. If we have been reasonably certain of unreliabilitv, we may not even have mentioned the marvelous statement. Obviously, we could do no more with apparently credible cases, reported by reputabh' medi- cal men, than to cite author and source and leave the matter there, where our I'esponsibility must end. But where our proper responsibility seemed likely never to end was in carrying out the enormous labor re(iuisite for a reasonable cei-tainty that we had omitted no searching th;it might lead to undiscovered facts, ancient or modern. Clioice in selection is always, of course, an aftair de gustibus, and esi)ecial]y when, like the present, there is considerable embarrassment of riches, coupled Avith the purpose of compressing our results in one handy volume. In brief, it may be said that several yeai's of exhaustive research have been spent by us in the great medical lil>raries of the United States and Europe in collecting the material herewith presented. If, despite of this, omissions and errors are to be found, we shall be grateful to have them pointed out. It nuist be rememl)ered that limits of space have foi'bidden satisfactory discussion of the cases, and the prime object of the whole work has been to carefully collect and group the anomalies and curiosities, and allow the reader to form his own conclusions and make his own deductions. As the entire labor in the preparation of the forelying volume, from the inception of the idea to the completion of the index, has been exclusively tlie personal work of the authors, it is with full confidence of the authenticity of the reports quoted that the material is presented. Complete references are given to those facts that are comparatively un- known or unique, or that are worthy of particular interest or further investi- gation. To prevent unnecessary loading of the book with foot-notes, in those instances in which there are a number of cases of the same nature, and a descrip- tion has not been thought necessary, mere citation being sufficient, references are l)ut briefly given or omitted altogether. For the same reason a l:)iblio- graphic index has been added at the end of the text. This contains the most important sources of information used, and each journal or bc^ok therein has its own number, which is used in its stead all through tlie book (thus, 476 signifies The Lancet, London ; 697, the New York Medical Journal; etc.). These bibliographic numbers begin at 100.
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