An essay on clinical instruction ... / Translated by Peter Martin.

  • Pierre Charles Alexandre Louis
Date:
1834
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An essay on clinical instruction ... / Translated by Peter Martin. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Fourth. Of the degree of strength or of weakness of the patient, by whatever cause they may be produced; be¬ cause the state of the bodily powers has a great influence on the progress, the event, the prognosis and the treatment of diseases, especially those of an inflammatory character, the ravages of which are so much the more rapid, and the more profound, as the individuals affected with them are more enfeebled. Fifth. Of the diseases to which the subject is particularly exposed, of those which have attacked him anteriorly to the present time :—this information is important, difficult to be obtained, and cannot be acquired with too much care. It is important, for the greater or less frequency of disease indicates a more or less feeble constitution ; and if the pa¬ tient has at a former time recovered, in circumstances similar to the present, and especially if the present affection has commenced under favorable circumstances, he will very probably recover again ; and the prognosis, if the case is one of an acute nature, as pneumonia for example, will be more favorable, than if the patient were attacked for the first time. And this information is not merely useful for the prognosis, but if obtained from a mass of individu¬ als, it would enable us to determine with precision the degree of frequency of different affections at different periods of life. But here it must be evident how many precautions are required in the examination, how much intelligence and recollection in the patient to arrive at cer¬ tain results. For example, suppose the case to be one of pneumonia, and that the patient assures us that he has had the same disease previously ; we must not be contented with such a statement : in order that we may be entirely certain upon this point, it is necessary that the patient, should recall to his recollection, and describe to us the characteristic symptoms of this affection. The enquiry into the diseases, under which the patient has formerly laboured, is also useful in another respect, as
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