On stethometry : being an account of a new and more exact method of measuring & examining the chest, with some of its results in physiology and practical medicine : also an appendix on the chemical and microscopical examination of respired air / by Arthur Ransome.

Date:
1876
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On stethometry : being an account of a new and more exact method of measuring & examining the chest, with some of its results in physiology and practical medicine : also an appendix on the chemical and microscopical examination of respired air / by Arthur Ransome. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    19/228 (page 3)
    I.] In this way also may be recorded, in a manner suited for future comparison, the advance or retrogression of fluid effusions, the waxing and waning of tumours, or other adventitious structures, and the increase or diminu- tion of consolidation or of engorgement. For all these purposes exact instruments of measurement are absolutely necessary. Without in any degree under- valuing the power of the experienced eye or of the practised hand for the detection, and even for the appreciation of the extent of most diseases, yet even when aided by the well-trained ear, they fail to meet all our requirements. The utility—nay, the necessity—for artificial and nume- rical determinations will be sufficiently evident if we con- sider as briefly as may be the powers of the unaided senses, and note wherein they fall short of the exactitude which is needed in our researches. First, the eye— the guide, the ruler, the succourer of all the other parts, ^—is undoubtedly able to do many things that mechanical apparatus cannot do. By sight we can mark those signs, invaluable to the phy- sician, which tell of the general condition of the patient, and which constitute the physiognomy of disease; the aspect of the face and frame, the mode of breathing, even the muscles employed, the gestures and signs of distress. The eye can also, with great accuracy, detect differences in shape, size, and situation of objects—that is, it can localize the signs it sees—but it cannot state their relations to surrounding parts, so as to permit of future reference. It can also measure, but it cannot register its measure- ments, and is incapable of giving definite results. Next, the Hand. The instrument of instruments,^ is ' Roger Ascham. ' 17 opyavov Icttw. opyavmv.—ARISTOTLE. B 2