Text book of comparative general pathology for practitioners and students of veterinary medicine / by Th. Kitt; authorized translation by William W. Cadbury ; edited with notes and additional illustrations by Allen J. Smith.

  • Kitt, Th. (Theodor), 1858-1941.
Date:
1906
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Text book of comparative general pathology for practitioners and students of veterinary medicine / by Th. Kitt; authorized translation by William W. Cadbury ; edited with notes and additional illustrations by Allen J. Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    31/504 (page 11)
    Early History. yet in a large measure it remained in its primitive condition m the hands of sbepherds and farmers. At the beginning of our present era medicine was chiefly domi- nated by the teacbings l'ormulated by Hippocrates and Aristotle in tlieir general writings. The stndy of comparative natural Science, instituted by Aristotle, laid the foundation of our knowledge of animal biology, of comparative anatomv and plrysi- ology; while Hippocrates and after him the physicians of his school established pathology. At that time it was held that tliere were in the animal and human bodv four Cardinal humors, ‘‘blood, mucus, and yellow and black bile. ’ It was taught that a proper relationship between these (crasis) insured health; and that dis- ease depended upon the occurrence of lack or excess of one or other, that is upon some modification of tlieir relationship (dys- crasis). Next to the blood, the principal vital humor, Hippocra- tes placed mucus in order of importance, because it is often dis- charged in large quantities from the nose and was thought to come from the brain and to escape through the ethmoidal open- ings. Yellow bile was often seen in vomit; but black bile was entirely a product of the imagination and was supposed to arise in the spieen. The basis of vital phenomena was supposed to’ be the inspired air (pneuina, the breath of life), which was thought to contribute warmth to the bodv. In conformity with the accepted thcory of corruption of the humors, therapeutic measures were directed to a riddance from the System of the ma- terial which had caused the “dyscrasiaand for this reason evacuants, diaphoretics, diuretics and venescction plaved an im- portant part in those times. The importance which Hippocrates ascribed to these fluids or humors led to the application by later generations of the name Humoral Pathology to this System. The solid structures of the body were not entirely disregarded, but only vague ideas prevailed in relation to them. There was a theory (Democrites) that the solid parts were made up of particles known as atoms, between which there were pores [for the passage of air and humors], that the width of these pores varied with the varying density of deposition of the atoms, and that by some such method the state of the body was regulated. To this extent, therefore, there was a Solid Pathology, which, however, found but few adherents. Efforts toward such theoretical explanations found Support particularly in the schools of philosophy; and tenacity of such views and the rigid