A history of laryngology and rhinology / [Jonathan Wright].

  • Jonathan Wright
Date:
1914
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: A history of laryngology and rhinology / [Jonathan Wright]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION. A FEW words may not be amiss in the way of preface to this history of the development of our knowledge of the nose and throat. An attempt has been made to link together the story of the records of the nose and throat in medicine with the general drift of medical history, with the salient features in the early history of the civilization of mankind and with the general literature which has a bearing upon the central subject of the work; for, as Huxley has said: “ Science and literature are not two things, but two sides of one thing.” This has been done in constant fear of rendering the story too verbose and pedantic, but with the earnest hope of riveting the attention of the reader in a way which can not be attained in the routine preparation of an encyclopedia or a dictionary. The author has also ventured to hope that the informa- tion thus laboriously offered will not, on account of its form, prove less accurate or extended because an attempt has been made to make it more attractive. If he has failed in realizing these ideals— and who ever fully succeeds?—he may comfort himself with the reflection that the labor expended in an attempt to attain them has been fully repaid by his pleasure in the work itself. In the preparation of this work the author has taken his notes chiefly from the original sources. In addition he has made use of many historical works both of medicine and of general literature. x\mong the former those of Sprengel (the French edition of his history). Baas (in English translation), Whittington, and especially Gordon Flohnes’ “History of the Progress of Laryngology,”^ and Heyman’s “Geschichte der Laryngologie und Rhinologie” in his “Handbuch;” among the latter those of Buckle, Guizot, Freeman, Draper, Lecky, Gibbon, Grote, Ranke, Prescott, Renan, and many others have been systematically read during the course of the work. ^ Med. Press and Circular, London, 1885, xci (n. s. XL), p. 49, seq.