An essay on clinical instruction / by E.Ch.A. Louis ; Translated by Peter Martin.

  • Louis, P. C. A. (Pierre Charles Alexandre), 1787-1872.
Date:
1834
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An essay on clinical instruction / by E.Ch.A. Louis ; Translated by Peter Martin. 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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    g-ence and memory on the part of the patient, than any- other : this task however must be thoroughly undertaken, otherwise this part of the science, perhaps the most impor- tant, would remain for ever in obscurity. In fact as to the predisposing causes, it may easily be conceived, how much patience is required by the physician, in informing himself of the kind of life which the patient has led, during a more or less considerable space of time, of the changes of his habits &c. and it may also be con- ceived how much intelligence and memory are necessary on the part of the patient, to enable him to recollect with exactness, the facts with regard to which he is interrogated, so as to exaggerate and undervalue nothing. And here especially it is necessary to attend carefully to the manner in which we put the questions, in order that we may not dictate the replies; if for example, we begin to enquire of a sick individual with regard to his habitual labour and fatigue, he will often from his usual disposition to complain, attribute to fatigue, a disease which has arisen without excessive labour, as a more close examination frequently proves. The research of the occasional or ex- citing causes more frequently leads to positive results ; but it has also its difficulties, among which the prejudices of the patient occupy the first place. Thus the exciting cause of sciatic pains is, in a considerable number of cases humidity, or rather cold and humidity combined; almost all the subjects affected with this disease refer their pains to this cause : but if we insist upon the details, we shall in many cases soon discover that this cause is imaginary, that the patients had only attributed their affection to it, in con- sequence of their belief that sciatica could not arise from any other cause. The same thing may be observed with regard to phthisis. It is very rare, in fact, that our patients do not in the first instance attribute the cough which declares itself at the commencement of phthisis, to the having caught cold