A rational exposition of the physical signs of the diseases of the lungs and pleura : illustrating their pathology, and facilitating their diagnosis / by Charles J.B. Williams.

  • Williams, Charles J. B. (Charles James Blasius), 1805-1889.
Date:
1834
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A rational exposition of the physical signs of the diseases of the lungs and pleura : illustrating their pathology, and facilitating their diagnosis / by Charles J.B. Williams. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    by the immediate correction of touch, are, both by nature and habit, calculated to give us a more per- fect knowledge of external objects, than can be derived from the other senses. But the number of diseases that come under the cognizance of vis- ion is very limited, as by far the greater part of the body is excluded from its sphere. Derange- ments of the surface, and of the openings of some of the passages to the interior, can alone be sub- jected to the direct examination of the eye. Me- diately, physical changes of internal organs can be perceived by sight only, when their size, form, or position is so far altered as to cause displacement of some external part; and the knowledge that such a sign gives us, although scanty, is often val- uable. The sense of touch, or tact, will in the same cases, furnish us with further knowledge as to the form, substance, and constitution of a diseased part; and, when perfected by experience, may frequently discover organic changes that are alto- gether imperceptible to sight. The sense of smell is more rarely qualified to distinguish disease ; as its impressions can only be conveyed through the medium of air, probably in motion; yet we shall find that cases are not want- ing in which this sense may assist us in diagnosis. Sound, as it may be both generated and propa-