Manual of clinical microscopy and chemistry, prepared for the use of students and practitioners of medicine, with notes and additions by Henry T. Brooks...with 148 illustrations in the text and 9 colored plates

Front matter

Class JSJÜ 21

GopghtN0.

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT.

Preface To The First Edition

It was my endeavor to offer to physicians and students a book which would not only instruct them in clinical microscopic and chemic methods of examination, but also aid them in interpreting their diagnostic significance in practice. For some time routine exercises bearing upon our subject have but seldom been carried out in the majority of universities, and consequently their practical value has been underestimated by the practitioner. Their application, however, is daily growing more necessary, the more the material relative thereto increases. This has already become too voluminous to be adequately treated in a clinical or propedeutic manner. It is only by practical exercises, such as have long been customary in other sciences, that students can acquire the knowledge requisite in practice. From this standpoint I have for many years arranged and conducted this special course in the Leipzig clinic.

The lectures here given in augmented form are the result of my work as a teacher. The abundant material of this clinic, with which I have been almost constantly associated since the beginning of my assistantship under the guidance of Ernst Wagner in 1879, has afforded me the opportunity, especially in recent years, to devote particular attention to the subjects here discussed. I should not, therefore, omit to thank Geheimrath Curschmann for the clinical material which he placed at my disposal.

A glance at the table of contents will show the divisions of the book. It may also be remarked that in the microscopic part I have considered only the examination of fresh and dried impression and teased preparations, because the more complicated

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xiy PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.

examination of sections, etc., belongs to the domain of pathologic anatomy. The microscopic description has in all instances been preceded by a careful macroscopic resume.

Chemistry has received detailed consideration especially in connection with examination of the urine, while in those sections devoted to the study of the blood and gastric contents only the practical tests, including forensic examination of blood-stains, have been discussed.

In the first section of the book the vegetable and animal parasites have been briefly dealt with. In this way only was it possible uniformly to present parasitology in its important bearing upon pathologic processes, and to avoid frequent repetitions in the subsequent sections. The greater space devoted to a description of the vegetable parasites can readily be understood at the present day. As regards many questions in this connection, I have consulted especially Baumgar ten's "Mykologie" and Leuckart's classical treatise on parasitology, which reflect the accumulated knowledge in this domain.

In examinations of the Hood the studies pursued by Ehrlich and others upon analytic staining have been thoroughly discussed; that many questions in this direction still await explanation will be admitted by anyone familiar with the subject.

The discussion of the sputum and urine has, I believe, been handled in a comprehensive, though somewhat brief, manner; here, however, I have constantly kept in mind the interests of the practitioner, and have, therefore, in all instances thoroughly considered questions of diagnostic importance.

Owing to the text-book character of the treatise, I have omitted all references to literature; on the other hand, however, when of historic interest, I have included in the text the names of authors who have elaborated the subjects.

Hermann Lenhartz.