On slight ailments: their nature and treatment / by Lionel S. Beale.

  • Lionel Smith Beale
Date:
1882
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On slight ailments: their nature and treatment / by Lionel S. Beale. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    16/300 (page 4)
    changes in important organs may exist for years, and run their course without the patient being cognizant of any unusual symptoms, or con- scious that anything in his organism had been going wrong. I propose, then, that the first twelve lectures of my course on the Principles and Practice of Medicine should be devoted to the considera- tion of the nature and treatment of slight ailments. Could we examine the tissues ever so minutely, it is doubtful whether we should discover the slightest departure from the healthy state. No structural change whatever is induced, and even in cases in which there is decided depar- ture from the normal physiological action, and where considerable pain and distress may be experienced, the accumulation in the blood of some product that should be quickly eliminated,—a slightly altered state of the fluid that transudes through the capillary walls and bathes the tissue elements, is probably all that would be found, and would indeed be quite sufficient to account for the symptoms. In the course of our inquiry questions of the greatest interest will present themselves, and although the present state of our knowledge does not enable us to give a full and satisfactory explanation of all the phenomena, say, of an Ordinary Cold or a Sick Headache, I feel sure that a more full consideration of the slight disturbance of physiological actions which are continually occurring even in the healthiest among us, will assist us in understanding those more complex changes which' occur in actual disease. The plan I propose to adopt will not only enable me to bring under your notice thus early in my course some of the simplest and most common derangements you will be called upon to correct, but I shall be able to direct your attention to practical matters of great importance with regard to the action of remedies and methods of prescribing and administering many ordinary medicines—matters of greater importance than ever in these days, when so few among you enjoy the advantages formerly gained by apprenticeship, and become acquainted with the art and mystery of preparing drugs and compounding medicines and dis- pensing pills and potions. I shall make use of very few learned terms, and when obliged to employ hard words shall give their exact meaning and derivation, and I shall try to describe the derangements I have to consider in the simplest manner possible. In case any of you should think I am too outspoken as regards the confessions I shall have to make of ignorance concerning the real nature of some of the simplest and most common of the slight ailments, I would only remark that, as there is so much real knowledge in medicine, and as the labours of our predecessors have established so many great truths and principles, we may surely freely admit that there are many things which we do not know, without fear of losing the confidence of the public. In my opinion, it is the very