Medical diagnosis for the student and practitioner

Front matter

Class

Boo k -GrS

Copy"nglit^ _

Preface To The Fifth Edition

The author regrets that the obligations of military service in the Great War and the concentration upon private affairs necessarily following it have delayed the issuance of this volume.

He has made full use, however, of the opportunity afforded for a deliberate, painstaking and thorough revision.

Every section has been expanded by important additions and no effort spared to make the present volume a thoroughly practical and up to date treatise upon modern medical diagnosis. The rise of diseases of the heart and blood-vessels to first place on the list of causes of premature death makes imperatively necessary a better understanding of the now unrealized possibilities along the lines of their early recognition, prevention, and retardation.

The author has endeavored, therefore, to further emphasize in this volume the means of early and accurate diagnosis now available to the physician.

This has involved not only an amplification of those sections dealing specifically with etiology and clinical technic, but also a more extended reference to and discussion of the adoption of better standards and a more helpful view point.

In the preceding edition considerable space was devoted to the clinical use of instruments of precision in the diagnosis of heart disease, but the great and growing interest in these newer aids to the detection and efficient management of heart lesions has led the author to expand greatly the sections dealing with polygraphic and electrocardiographic technic and interpretation.

Among the many additions to the text, the author would call attention especially to the discussion of " influenza" and the interesting and unique radiograms of Dr. John Hunter Selby, illustrating the development and course of that "hemorrhagic pneumonitis" which gave to the epidemic of 1 918 its terrific mortality.

The " Symptom Index" incorporated in this Edition must greatly increase the usefulness of the volume.

The author would express his grateful appreciation of the assistance rendered by his valued associate Dr. Harold E. Richardson, by Dr. Frank S. Bissell, Dr. Wm. Hunter Selby and many others.

He would acknowledge also the courtesy of his -publishers and the generous cooperation which has made possible the addition of 105 pages to the text and the introduction of 74 new illustrations at a time when publishing costs have risen to hitherto undreamed of heights.

The author hopes sincerely that this new volume will merit a continuance of the kind reception accorded it through so many years by student and practitioner alike.

Chas. Lyman Greene. 914 Lowry Building, St. Paul, Minnesota.

Contents

Page CERTAIN FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES AND SPECIAL PROBLEMS ... i

CASE-TAKING n

The value of the case-book; the subjective vs. the objective; "hearsay evidence," ii.