Manual of pathology. Containing the symptoms, diagnosis, and morbid characters of diseases: together with an exposition of the different methods of examination, applicable to affections of the head, chest, & abdomen / Translated, with notes and additions, by Jones Quain.

Louis Martinet

Date:: 1829

Credit: Manual of pathology. Containing the symptoms, diagnosis, and morbid characters of diseases: together with an exposition of the different methods of examination, applicable to affections of the head, chest, & abdomen / Translated, with notes and additions, by Jones Quain. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$berty ; catarrh, hasmoptysis, ])alpitations, dyspnoea, when the organs of the thorax were assuming a certain degree of preponderance ; and lastly, he will make in- quiries concerning any visceral or functional disturban ces which may have occurred during the succeeding periods. It is only by accurate information on all these subjects that we can obtain such a knowledge of the peculiar disposition and constitution of the individual, whose case is under consideration, as will enable us to give him ad- vice concerning the future management of his mode of living, at the same time that it throws much light on the plan of treatment to be pursued for his present relief. 54. A knowledge of the constitution will enable us to foresee, in a great measure, the form which diseases are likely to assume, and the course they will probably run. According to professor Recamier, constitutions may be divided into the active, passive, ataxic, and refractory. Observation has shown, that in persons who present the characters of the active constitution, namely, those whose ’’unctions and actions are performed with energy and re- gularity, the return to health is more prompt and ea.sy, ind their diseases are more regular and less fatal, if pro- lerly treated from the commencement; that, in those of . passive constitution, whose functions and actions are eeble, slow, and dull, though still regular, diseases are edious in their progress, and tardy in their return to lealth, and, consequently, have a tendency to remain ■tationary ; that in those, whether active or passive, who tre of an ataxic habit, that is, who exhibit in their dif- erent vital phenomena any incoherence, irregularity, or onfusion, diseases will present similar characters, will ;rise from apparently insufficient causes, and often as- ume such a formidable character as to render itimjjossi- • 'le to arrest their progress; lastly, in persons whose onstitutions are such as to merit the appellation of re- 1 factory, that is, who manifest a certain energy in their unctions, with considerable resistance in their disturb- •nce, disease, when once excited,presents a similar tena- ity, and generally resists every method of treatment. 55, The examination of the temperament should next$