The growth of medicine from the earliest times to about 1800Buck, Albert H. (Albert Henry)
History
The growth of medicine from the earliest times to about 1800
Buck, Albert H. (Albert Henry)
Medicine -- History
In the first place, the part should be carefully examined in
order that we may ascertain whether it presents any signs of
special value as indicating the nature of the disease. In the
next place, it is important in such an examination to know
beforehand what are the particular signs which belong to each
of the diseases that may affect the part or organ in question,
and also whether these signs vary according to the particular
section of the organ involved. In inflammation of the lung,
for example, there are: difficulty in breathing (dyspnoea) and
great general distress (malaise), the patient being obliged to
remain in a sitting posture (orthopnoea)--all of which are signs
indicating the possibility of suffocation. Furthermore, the
air expired from the infected lung is sensibly hot, especially
if the inflammation is of the erysipelatous variety, and, as
a consequence, the patient shows a disposition to draw long
breaths, knowing that the cold air which he thus draws into
his lungs will afford him some measure of relief. The sputa
expectorated when he coughs are differently colored; some
being red, yellowish, or of a rusty appearance, while others
are almost black, livid, or frothy. The patient also often
experiences the sensation of a heavy weight in his chest,
together with more or less pain, which seems to be located
deep down in that region and which shoots backward into his
spinal column or forward toward the sternum. Add to these
manifestations a high fever and a pulse such as we have already
described on another page, and you will have....
(Translated from Daremberg’s French version of Galen’s works.)
It has been said that Galen possessed more than the ordinary share of
vanity with regard to his cleverness as a diagnostician; and certainly
some of the accounts which he gives, in his clinical and scientific
treatises, of his own experiences, seem to bear out this accusation.
One hesitates to expose the weak spots in the character of one of the
really great men of antiquity lest such exposure may convey a wrong
impression; at the same time it would be an error to represent him as
a man entirely free from the foibles common to humanity,--even to the
best and wisest of men. I therefore repeat here Galen’s own account of
a professional visit which he made to a brother physician whose malady
presented to himself and to his friends many obscure features.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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