Galen : two bibliographical demonstrations in the library of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, 9th December, 1891, and 30th March, 1893 / by James Finlayson.

  • James Finlayson
Date:
1895
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Galen : two bibliographical demonstrations in the library of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, 9th December, 1891, and 30th March, 1893 / by James Finlayson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    The continuation of this discussion as to the differential diao-nosis of retention of urine was selected by Sir William Broadbent, in his Address to the British Medical Association, as an example of how near Galen came to modern ideas in such matters. Suppose the patient to be a child who has previously presented symptoms of stone, watery urine charged with sandy deposits, the child continually squeezing the penis, which is flaccid or unaccount- ably erect; then sudden stoppage of urine takes place. It may be reasonably concluded that the stone is lodged in the neck of the bladder. Place the child on his back, the hips a good deal raised above the i-est of the body ; then shake him in different ways so as to make the stone fall out of the canal. After these proceed- ings, tell the child to try and pass his water. If the attempt is successful and the urine flows, you will be satisfied that you possess the exact diagnosis of the cause, and that, at the same time, you have found the proper treatment. Should the retention persist, you will shake hi in again still more forcibly ; if after this it still persists, then with the catheter you will push the stone from the neck of the bladder to re-open a passage for the urine.—(Sir William Broad- bent's Translation, British Medical Journal^ 1895, vol. ii, p. 267). Galen's recognition of jaundice as caused by snake bites is very striking as a clinical description, while his comparison of the corruption of humours due to poison with that due to disease is also interesting. The following is rendered from Daremberg's French translation (tome ii, p. 654):— [Jaundice from Snake Bites.']— One of the slaves of the Emperor (Marcus Aurelius] whose duty it was to drive away snakes, having been bitten, took for some time draughts of ordinary medicines, but -as his skin changed so as to assume the colour of a leek, he came to me and narrated his accident; after having drunk theriaca he recovered quickly his natural colour. Physicians seek to find out if there are signs peculiar to poisoning, because they often see, without the administration of any deadly poison, that the body presents a corruption of the humours similar to that which is produced by poisons; it is not at all surprising, therefore, that there sometimes I