A manual of minor surgery and bandaging for the use of house surgeons, dressers and junior practitioners.

  • Christopher Heath
Date:
1862
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A manual of minor surgery and bandaging for the use of house surgeons, dressers and junior practitioners. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    the officer who saw the case at first; aud the physical condition of the patient should always he recorded — thiis, faint from loss of blood, insensible, sober, drunk, &c. These last particulars (9) will only be necessary iji cases of accident, since in chronic cases the condition of the patient when seen by the case-taker wiU vary but little from that on admission. 10. The paiien fs irrevious Idslory must next be as- certained, so far as it bears u])on the probable result of the case, or the treatment. Thus, it will be important to'record whether tlie patient is liabitually sober or given to drink; whether a woman is some months ad- vanced in pregnancy, or whether the thigh of the oppo- site side was fractured some years ago and has been shortened since that date. Again, in cases of disease, e. (J., tumour, tlie family history will have a direct bearing upon the question of malignancy, and so also the previous existence of other tumours, the amount of pain experienced, &c. It will be well to ascertain whetlier the patient has resided habitually in town or country, and whether he has been engaged at any time in occupations of an injurious tendency. It will be advisable also in many cases, and particularlj-- in the case of children, to obtain further information from the parents or friends when they come to visit at the hospital. 11. Description of case.—This gives a wide field for the case-taker's ability to show itself, for nothing is more difficult than to give a good verbal description of morbid appearances. In the simpler cases a few lines will suffice, thus : 'There is a simple transverse fracture through the right humerus, immediately below the insertion of the deltoid, with a small eftusion of blood into the sur- rounding tissues, aud a bruise on the outer side of the- arm, over the seat of fracture. jN^o other injury.'