Acute contagious diseases / By William M. Welch ... and Jay F. Schamberg ... Illustrated with 109 engravings and 61 full-page plates.

  • Welch, William Miller, 1837-
Date:
1905
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Acute contagious diseases / By William M. Welch ... and Jay F. Schamberg ... Illustrated with 109 engravings and 61 full-page plates. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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    PREFACE. In this work on Acute Contagious Diseases the writers have endeav- ored to present a practical treatise for the guidance of students and practitioners of medicine. Perhaps some explanation may be sought for the adoption of the title. We have somewhat arbitrarily included in this work but a small group of diseases, particularly those with which we have had experience in the Municipal Hospital of Philadelphia. The use of the term infectious diseases would have necessitated the inclusion of a great number of maladies upon which we do not feel specially qualified to write. Furthermore, the group of contagious diseases is distin- guished by great transmissibility, being communicated by the merest contact or even by proximity, and therefore the term in its strict etymological sense appears to us to be justified. Vaccinia is, of course, not contagious, but its relation to the prophylaxis of smallpox makes the consideration of the two inseparable. The comparative infrequency of epidemics of smallpox renders it quite possible for accomplished and otherwise experienced physicians to be somewhat unfamiliar with this disease. We have, therefore, devoted to this affection, and particularly to its diagnosis, an amount of space not usually accorded to it in text-books of medicine. We have furthermore endeavored to elucidate the subject-matter with numerous photographs of patients under our care. The text is based upon a personal study of over 9000 cases of smallpox, 9000 cases of scarlet fever, and 10,000 cases of diphtheria, in addition to a considerable number of cases of the other diseases discussed, all of which have been treated in the Municipal Hospital of Philadelphia during the past thirty-five years.