Diphtheria : its natural history and prevention, being the Milroy lectures delivered before the Royal College of Physicians of London, 1891 / by R. Thorne Thorne.

  • Thorne, R. Thorne (Richard Thorne), Sir, 1841-1899.
Date:
1891
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Diphtheria : its natural history and prevention, being the Milroy lectures delivered before the Royal College of Physicians of London, 1891 / by R. Thorne Thorne. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    by the application of a specific name to a specific phlegmasia had failed in its object; and Hirsch, referring to the confusion which at that time prevailed on the subject, says : Into this chaos no light could come until medical science had advanced so far as to recognise that causes of various kinds might underlie o?ie and the same anatomical morbid process ; and, conversely, that one and the same morbific cause operating on a given tissue may be able to call forth, under varying circum- stances, nosological forms of different sorts; that in forming our judgment of the peculiarity of a disease, or of the identity or distinctness of two or more diseases in a group, we must place ourselves, not in the anatomical point of view alone, nor exclusively in the clinical point of view, but have regard also and most especially to the etiological aspect, while we keep in mind all three factors together. 1 Again, a long term of years has elapsed. The disease has been studied anew from the anatomical point of view, and an attempt has been made to differentiate from amongst the inflammatory conditions of mucous mem- branes a special fibrinous (false membranous) one j this being in turn subdivided and regarded as croupous or diphtheritic according to the different appearances of the implicated mucous membrane. But no such distinctions have even sufficed to secure for diphtheria a trustworthy definition. Clinical medicine has made rapid strides i Handbook of Geographical and Historical Pathology, by Dr. August Hirsch; translated by Charles Creighton, M.D. Vol. in. p. 69. New Sydenham Society, 1886.