Volume 1
A dictionary of practical medicine : comprising general pathology, the nature and treatment of diseases ... with numerous prescriptions ... a classification of diseases ... a copious bibliography with references, and an appendix of approved formulæ ... / by James Copland.
- Copland, James, 1791-1870.
- Date:
- 1858
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A dictionary of practical medicine : comprising general pathology, the nature and treatment of diseases ... with numerous prescriptions ... a classification of diseases ... a copious bibliography with references, and an appendix of approved formulæ ... / by James Copland. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![CLASSIFIED CONTENTS. Preliminary Remarks.—An Arranged Contents of his work is attempted by the Author with the object of enabling the student of medicine, and the medical practitioner, to peruse what he has advanced as the results of his observation—of his practical experience—and of his reading, with the most advantage, and in the most suggestive manner. Information is useful not only as respects its amount, but also as regards what it may suggest to the mind of the reader calculated to lead to further investigation and illustration, than the limits allotted by the Author to the many subjects and topics which have come under his consideration could allow. He has endeavoured to arrange these subjects, both pathological and practical, in such an order as may enable the information first afforded, or successively obtained, to contribute to the elucidation, and to the more complete comprehension, it is hoped, of what is subse- quently discussed. It may be necessary to premise that the Classification of diseases here attempted is, as far as the Author is concerned, altogether original, although it was first published in the London 3Iedical Repository, in 1822. Notwithstanding that this attempt was made at so early a period of his practice, he had then enjoyed extensive opportunities of observation in this country, on the continent of Europe, and within the tropics. This classification and the pathological principles here stated are the same as were then published. Comprehensive and close observations, the sources of true experience, which he believes himself to have possessed, as well as to have exerted, have confirmed him in the belief, that his arrangement is the most useful, practically or therapeutically, inasmuch as it is founded upon, and has constant reference to, the conditions of vital force—to that power which actuates the whole human organisation, and to which a continued regard must necessarily be had, and a constant reliance placed, in our efforts to alleviate or to remove disease. During the many years, in which the Author was en- gaged in lecturing on the Principles of Pathology and on Practical Medicine, he adopted this classi- fication, and he believes that it was then conducive to the acquisition of practical knowledge by Ins PUThis arrangement being thus based upon the states of vital force and upon the unquestionable facts, that disease, especially in its slightest and earliest deviations from health, is a deranged manifestation of life in some tissue, organ, or system; that this deviation is followed by a succession of changes, until alterations of the fluids, secretions, and structures supervene; that the existing change has been in- duced by that which preceded it, often aided by.the persistence of the exciting cause or causes and bj« the concurrence of additional influences; and that it will itself occasion still further changes, if not arrested by science or art, or by the efforts of nature, or, in other words by the resistance(which the vital force or power may be enabled to oppose to successive or unfavourable changes.-it follows that a due r cognition of the simplest and earliest manifestations of disorder, a correct estimate of existing changes, and an accurate view of future contingent alterations and results are of the utmost importance nTmerely as respects the places assigned to them in the classification, but still more as regard the adoption of indications of alleviation or of cure, and the selection of means by which these indications mStlfuffiSS Of the essence of life itself we know nothing further, than that it is associated wi h, 211 ^ed bystrncture, the simplest and lowest structures ^^^t£^S£SA generally diffused functions or properties, the more complex organisations h gher manifestations, fhe highest and most perfect of created beings alone possessing its h.ghest forties. Theglowest formations which evince vitality possess organic nervous.<«pus £^£^3 circulating systems; and as we ascend the scale of animal creation, th oigam nonous fl^*] from rudimcntal, through more perfect developments, to the ^^^^£^1^ in the highest order of animal, Over the two latter J^^J^SSSS * SLfto the organically sensitive presides; each of theaere*£OCal? aidtog«J™JH itself m,serves the others, and thereby supporting and increasing the vital forte, WJUifll vuis](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b20416143_001_0036.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
