A manual of medical diagnosis / by A.W. Barclay.

  • Andrew Whyte Barclay
Date:
1857
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A manual of medical diagnosis / by A.W. Barclay. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    t taught, by renderiug familiar to him the principles on ■which the physician himself forms his ojunion. It (Cannot need any demonstration to show that one who lhas thus studied will, when himself called upon to ] prescribe, all the more readily seize on the true form (of the disease, and the exact relation it holds to the ■vital condition of the patient. In carrying out this intention it would be equally 'valueless to give a mere enumeration of symptoms, or ito classify the exceptions which experience has taught I myself and others to look for, and the errors into which 'Ave are liable to fall. My purpose is to elucidate the I princi[)les as well as the practice of their interpretation, tso that whatever be their variety or perplexity, philo- ssophical conclusions may be drawn from their presence, laA'oiding unAvarrantable infei'ences, and at least guiding tthe mind in a right direction, if no satisfactory solu- Ition of any individual case can be arrived at. All true diagnosis is ultimately based upon induc- Itions separately framed out of clinical and pathological i investigations and experiments. By cai'eful and re- ] peated obserA'atiou, we have succeeded, Avith every ap- ipearance of truth, in associating certain ])henomena observed during life Avith particular lesions found after (death ; and these form the first step in our progress. ; Sound princijiles have advanced exactly in proportion tto the number and the accuracy of these conclusions, I because there are many conditions Avhich we are not }yet, and perha])S never shall be able, to associate Avith any appreciable change in structure ; and to them Ave I must aj)ply by inference the truths Avhich have been t taught in other instances by direct observation. In - so far as Ave are able correctly to interpret symptoms, sand to trace out in connexion Avith them a real change O of structui'e or of function AA'hich affords an adequate (exi)lanatiou of their presence, in so far are Ave pre- I pared to form a correct diagnosis. It is not the pro- 'vince of this branch of study to elucidate the modus