Handbook of the science and practice of medicine / by William Aitken.

  • William Aitken
Date:
1858
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Handbook of the science and practice of medicine / by William Aitken. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    c;hange in type since early part of present century. XCIU strongly developed, while at other times the same classes of symj)- toms were mild and subdued. It will be seen how in epidemics, diseases have been characterized by the malignant expression of phenomena, almost scarcely per- ceptible before. The small-pox now-a-days is not the malignant small-pox of the time of Sydenham. And although it may be said that such an example does not illustrate a change in the type of a disease, because the change has been effected by artificial means, yet it must appear evident, that in effecting this favourable change, natural results have only been imitated; and who can tell what modifying influences of a similar kind are going on although the science of medicine can as yet take no cognizance of such. We know that certain diseases confer immunity on the individual from future attacks; and may it not be that immimity to individuals from some diseases is conferred by agents and processes of which we as yet know notliing ; and that ultimately the types of complex morbid states may still come to be very much changed from what they are now 1 They certainly appear to be very much changed, according to the best authorities, from what they were forty or fifty years ago. Many of the symptoms, and particularly the consti- tutional fever usually attending internal inflammations, and resiilt- ing from cold, or fi'om other causes independent of the application of morbific poisons, are liable to variation in like manner, although not so decidedly nor so rapidly as the epidemic tliseases, in the course of time, and from causes not yet known. They have in fact undergone very considerable change since the early pai-t of the pre- .sent century; and it is on this account that inflammations of the lungs in pai-ticidai- are treated with equal success at present, with a much smaller loss of blood than they used to demand (Alison). . Such changes in the types of disease were formerly observed and much insisted upon by Sydenham, especially in the progi-ess and recurrence of continued fevers ; a.nd it is now a, fact well recognized, that not only does the prevalent mode of fatal termination during epidemic diseases vary, but so also do the types, peculiai'ities, aiul morbid constitutional tendencies vary in these diseases. It is chiefly with regard to the local, sporadic, or intr 'msic diseases, and especially inflammations, such as the cephalic, the ]nd7nonic, or the enteric, that any doubt exists as to whether or not they vary in their ty])e, or constitiitional tendency. Distinct statements a.s to this fact, however, have now been made by many accurate observers, whose experience is of the utmost value to science. Dr. Alison ami Dr. Bennett both agree as to the fact, that of late years, and apparently also in different pai'ts of the world, inflammation, the most important of all forms of local diseases, seldom shows itself with such general symptoms as demand or would justify, in the