Copy 1, Volume 1

Lectures on the principles and practice of physic; delivered at King's College, London / by Thomas Watson.

  • Watson, Thomas, Sir, 1792-1882
Date:
1843
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Lectures on the principles and practice of physic; delivered at King's College, London / by Thomas Watson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    investigation, to resolve itself, in most cases at least, into local disease within the thorax, or the abdomen. The diseases which, in the sense now explained, may be called general, I shall arrange among the diseases of those parts of the system from which they have been ascertained, or may be presumed, to arise. The first part, then, of the course will embrace an outline of general pathology, with an especial reference to those morbid con- ditions which fall to the care of the physician. In its relations to surgery and to midwifery, pathology will be more particularly taught by the respective professors of those distinct though kindred departments of medicine. Do not, however, imagine that I take no interest in these, or that there can be anything different in the principles upon which the several branches of pathological know- ledge are founded. The truth is, that you cannot, if you would, separate the one from the other. You can neither understand what may be called medical, without learning much which as strictly belongs to surgical pathology; nor can you be ignorant of either, without being in many important respects deficient also in the other. But the open field of pathology is of wide extent, and although we may, and must, survey the whole, yet its artificial divisions, its inclosures and allotments, will be cultivated best, and most improved, by a division of labour. | Afterwards, separate diseases are to be described and consi- dered: all such, at least, as admit of being individualized, or pre- sented under a definite shape. And here, I repeat, I shall chiefly pursue an anatomical order, as being comprehensive and inartificial, and as tending to facilitate diagnosis. The diseases of parts which le near each other are the most liable to be confounded. I shall begin, therefore, with the diseases of the parts that appertain to the head and spinal cord, and then proceed in suc- cession to those of the parts belonging to the neck, the thorax, and the abdomen; to those of the joints, the muscles, and the skin. I shall not hesitate, however, to deviate from this order, whenever, by doing so, I can promote your convenience or advantage. With that portion of the course which relates to particular diseases, I shall also interweave certain pathological considerations, applicable not so much to the whole body as to the several great systems of which it is made up. Thus, when I come to the brain, I shall speak of the functions peculiar to the nervous system, and of the obstructions and disturbances to which those functions are obnoxious, by way of preface to a detailed examination of the various affections of the several parts of that system. Before dis-