The basis of symptoms : the principles of clinical pathology / by Ludolf Krehl.

  • Krehl, Ludolf, 1861-1937.
Date:
[1917], ©1917
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The basis of symptoms : the principles of clinical pathology / by Ludolf Krehl. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    FOREWORD +' Y pR rp_S> o-^ j-äfsy OU 1 J) \ //o/T—- <£// MFDir^V- The remarkable development of pathologic anatomy during the past century was reflected in the clinical medicine of the time. Physical diagnosis reached its present plane of accuracy, the ability to predict the anatomic changes found at autopsy became the goal of certain clinical schools, and therapeutic nihilism be¬ came the order of the day since it was obvious that no medicine could have changed most of the alterations in structure that were found at autopsy. Modern surgery has indeed been able to cut many a Gordian knot prescribed by anatomic change; but modern medicine, though still directly dependent upon pathologic anatomy for the interpretation of many clinical syndromes, has turned its main path of development into other channels. Anatomic changes do harm by interfering with certain func¬ tions of the body, but functional alterations may also be present without evident alterations of structure. The symptoms for which a patient seeks relief are all due to changes in function. Even when the physician cannot remove the anatomic cause of the disease, he may yet be able to alter the bodily functions in such a way as to relieve symptoms or other disease manifestations. The functional outlook on disease requires from the physician that he think not in terms of diseased structure alone but also in terms of diseased physiology. The science of abnormal physiology is at present passing through a period of rapid development. It has been zealously studied in recent years by physiologists, experi¬ mental pathologists, biochemists, immunologists and by clinicians themselves. Modern pharmacology devotes itself mainly to the effect of drugs upon physiological processes. The bearing of this new knowledge upon the interpretation of clinical pictures and its application in the treatment of disease are to my mind the most important problems that lie before the modern clinical school. In his book on Pathologische Physiologie, Ludolf Krehl has sought to interpret the various pictures observed in the clinic from the stand-point of disturbed physiology. That his work has met with wide approval is evident from the fact that it has passed through eight German editions and that it has been trans-