Medical condition

“ Modern medicine, on the other hand, declares that disease must be studied in the living person of the patient. And the same disease may require different treatment, if the condition of the patient is different. ”

“ Before, Physicians attempt to cure disease, they should know now to sustain normal health, and equally comprehend what disease is. Perfect health signifies Physiology, but comparative health is bordering on Pathology or disease. Perfect health is that condition of the human system in which every organ, gland and fibre is sound and fully developed, and each performs its duty, and no more nor less. ”

“ So, likewise, are there numerous, acute diseases of a milder character which are easily and unmistakably recognized without the possession of great medical knowledge, and which readily yield to plain, simple, medical treatment which is within the ready reach of all who strive to acquaint themselves with the rudiments of medical science. ”

“ The facts of hygiene and therapeutic measures are widely scattered through medical literature, and extend over hundreds of years of time. Many volumes have been written on diseases of the eye, the heart, liver, and stomach, brain and other organs, to understand which requires special technical education. ”

“ Yet we regard clinical medicine as illustrating art, and didactic medicine as representing science. What figure, think you, would the hospital professor make who should come before you with a patient, and be unable to determine with what disease the person was suffering, the organs affected by it, the nature of their functional disturbance, why some functions rather than others were disordered, how these various elements affect the issue of the attack, what that issue will probably be, and finally, what means should be taken to render it favorable? ”

“ SYMPTOMS AND PROGRESS OF DISEASE—AGE AND CLASS OF PATIENTS TO BE TREATED—OPERATION—AFTER-TREATMENT, ETC. Every medical practitioner must have met with a certain class of cases which has set at defiance every effort at diagnosis, baffled every treatment, and belied every prognosis. ”

“ Nowadays, all this is past, in medical science. As to the causes of disease, we know that they are facts of nature,—various, but distinguishable by diagnosis and research, and more or less capable of prevention or control or counter-action. ”

“ Disease may be defined as an abnormal condition of the human body, and since there is no one condition of the human body which can be satisfactorily described as normal, there is, therefore, no exact definition of disease. ”

“ We shall not advise treatment for these more grave disorders which should always, for the safety of the patient, be attended by the family physician, except to recommend some simple means which may be employed in the initial stage of the disease, or when a physician's services cannot be promptly secured. ”

“ The presumption against this view arises not only from the fact that, in exact proportion as medical science advances, diseases are proved to be the necessary consequence of physical conditions, but also from many characteristics of unexplained disease which unequivocally prove it to be natural. ”

“ In private and even dispensary [Pg 46] practice, where the subjects were of a better physical and moral nature, we often saw the disease subside, and health return, after less attention to administer medical aid, or to supply other wants, than was exhibited at the hospital. We are, notwithstanding, sanguine enough to anticipate useful results from our attentive study of the symptoms of the disease, in connexion with that of the post mortem examinations, and to consider ourselves as in possession of lights to guide us with more certainty than before. ”

“ A vast variety of the approaches known to medical science has been explored to find better methods of treatment and prevention of major diseases, particularly heart diseases, cancer, and mental illness. ”

“ The very notion of Diagnosis in our modern sense of the word depends upon Morbid Anatomy. The older physicians seldom attempted to determine the seat of an ailment. [8] Disease was looked upon not as a condition depending upon disordered physiological functions, but as something external, attacking a previously healthy person, disturbing, and, if not expelled by art, finally destroying him; while any structural changes which were found after death were regarded rather as the effects than the causes of the symptoms during life. ”

“ Neither would I wish to insinuate further, that human medical skill is of no avail, and consequently is unnecessary to be consulted in the affair of bodily health, inasmuch as some obstructions to health are of the body as well as of the mind, and it is possible that the bodily obstructions may require for their removal the aid of bodily medicine. ”

“ When the physician discovers certain signs or symptoms which constitute the diagnosis of any disease, he regards those signs as the effects of a disease already in existence, and treats the patient accordingly. ”

“ The Beginnings of Medicine.—In the early period of man’s existence upon this earth he must have possessed an exceedingly small stock of knowledge with regard to the maintenance of his body in health and with regard to the means which he should adopt in order to restore it to a normal condition after it had been injured by violence or impaired in its working machinery by disease. ”

“ Cases are found where the patient, possibly on the public platform or at a social gathering, is seized with a consciousness of the malady so suddenly as to render medical assistance futile. Surgical Cases It is impossible to mention more than a few of the most typical cases of diseases of this sort. ”

“ A state of health requires a calm pulse, temperate skin, clean and moist tongue, a clear head, tranquil respiration, natural appetite with digestion unconsciously performed, regular bowels, all the several secretions and excretions in adequate quantity and of natural character, and, finally, sound repose. If, in any of these respects, material deviation be discoverable, then, however unconscious the party may be of the existing derangement, health is so far impaired, and more determinate disease will sooner or later be sure to ensue. ”

“ If we can ever settle down to the rational way of regarding these things, we shall discover, what sensible medical men have always known, and what druggists as well as mere laymen can not afford to neglect, that there is no such thing as a panacea, and that all rational therapeutics is based on common sense study of the disease—finding out what is the cause and endeavoring to abate that cause. The cause may be such that surgery is indicated, or serum, or regulation of diet, or change of scene. ”

“ We shall devote the largest amount of space to a careful and thorough consideration of those chronic diseases, which, by a little study, may be readily recognized and understood by the masses, and for the cure of which we shall suggest such hygienic treatment and domestic remedies as may be safely employed by all who are in quest of relief. ”

“ It can hardly be but that the modes of investigating disease ordinarily followed, labour under some radical errors or defects, else the researches of ages, pursued, as they have been, with exemplary diligence, and, in many splendid instances, by minds of the first order of intellect, must, ere this, have rendered our knowledge of the nature and treatment of disease more certain and more complete. ”

“ Every malady is accompanied by its characteristic indications, some of which are diagnostic, i.e., they particularize the affection and distinguish it from all others.
Medical diagnosis is both a science and an art; a science when the causes and symptoms of a disease are understood, and an art when this knowledge can be applied to determine its location and exact nature. Science presents the general principles of practice; art detects among the characteristic symptoms the differential signs, and applies the remedy. ”

“ The Hippocratic writings constitute a systematic and comprehensive presentation of medical and surgical observations, doctrines and practise. Especial attention was given to prognosis, dietetics and meteorological conditions as causes 'of disease; and the beginning was presented of the humoral pathology, which for ages dominated medicine. ”

“ In no class of diseases is greater care, scientific knowledge and skill more necessary than in the treatment of nervous affections. Almost every case is a law unto itself, and must receive careful consideration, pains-taking advice and specially prescribed treatment suited to the peculiarities of the individual. Hereditary influences, causes of the disease and constitutional peculiarities of the patient must all be taken into account. ”

“ The British Medical Journal of June 18, 1910, has published a series of papers by men ‘who could speak with the highest authority on the relations between mind and body, as exhibited in the phenomena of disease.’ ‘Their opinion,’ as the Journal tells us, ‘serves as an authoritative reminder that there are bodily ills which cannot be cured by pills and potions, but which yield to methods which, for want of a better word, may be called “mental” ”

“ The aim of the course of systematic lectures is to give in bold outline a description of the features of the various types of morbid action, and of these types as they manifest themselves in the different parts and organs of the body, also to describe the treatment which each condition demands. ”

“ Another difficulty is often found to arise, from the almost exclusive occupation of the physician’s mind by the diseased condition of the sufferer, the relief of which is, of course, our primary and incumbent duty. In order to give to each symptom, as well as to the whole assemblage of symptoms, a close and discriminating attention, and to adapt, with equal care, a corresponding treatment in medicine, diet and general management ”

“ In all cases where corrective treatment is needed the first thing to be attended to is the general condition, and the best hygienic conditions must be provided, the general health inquired into and attended to. ”

“ When skilful People are consulted in Time, the Medicines good, duly prepared and given, the Nurse attentive, and the Patient tractable, there is but little to be apprehended from the first Stage of any Disease which is not mortal of itself, where the Habit of Body is otherwise sound ”

“ The morbific matter, state or condition, call it which you will, which has caused the disease, or generated the sickly state into which the patient has lapsed, is counteracted and neutralized by the action of the drug which, in a healthy person, would produce symptoms similar to, but not identical with, those which are excited by the disease. ”

“ The modern reader will probably be surprised at the comprehensiveness of the work, which, besides general diseases, includes considerable portions of physiology, physiognomy, ophthalmology, laryngology, otology, gynecology, neurology, dermatology, embryology, obstetrics, dietetics, urinary and venereal diseases, therapeutics, toxicology, operative surgery, cosmetics and even the hygiene of travel and the prevention of sea-sickness. ”

“ This variety in diseases, which is produced by the changes in the customs of civilized nations, will enable us to account for many of the contradictions which are to be found in authors of equal candour and abilities, who have written upon the materia medica. ”

“ The common exciting causes to which so many of our ordinary maladies are imputed, and from which they doubtless in part arise, never produce their effects save on constitutions prepared to suffer by their influence. ”

“ Only through extensive experience can the medical practitioner become expert at detecting and successfully meeting, by rational scientific and carefully adapted treatment, the many phases and complications incident to the different forms and stages of this very prevalent malady. ”

“ I name these facts to show that disease has a mental origin, — that faith in rules of health or in drugs begets and fosters disease, by attracting the mind to the subject of sickness, by exciting fear of it, and by dosing the body in order to avoid it. ”

“ Undoubtedly one of the most important steps which medicine has made in its development, is the recognition of the difference between disease itself and those symptoms which may be caused as the result of such disease. We shall find that in most, if not in all, of the older writers on medicine, the treatment of the physician was directed towards the alleviation of those prominent symptoms, which, then not so much looked upon as symptoms, were only recognized as the main cause of the attack. ”

“ The physician of to-day, who has devoted half as much thought to the prevention of disease as to its cure, firmly believes in human ability to avoid nearly all the ills to which flesh is now subject. Given a good constitution, and the conditions of health or sickness are almost wholly in our own power. ”

“ To the experienced observer, the complexion, the expression, the eye, the gait, the tone of voice, the figure, the proportion of the different parts of the body, and many other indications incapable of description, convey very authentic information respecting the condition of organs and structures that are far removed from sight. It is in a great sanitarium like this, where invalids are gathered from all quarters of the world, that a young physician, under the guidance of an old one, might beneficially study the physiognomy of diseases. ”

“ No less than three hundred and seventy forms of disease, including diseases of women, diseases of children, chronic diseases, as well as those of a surgical nature are accurately described and the most successful methods of treatment made known. ”

“ In the results of homœopathic practice, we have evidence in amount, and of a character sufficient, most incontestably to establish the fact that disease is a restorative operation, or renovating process, and that medicine has deceived us. ”

“ If we can form and fix in our minds a clear conception of the state of health, we shall have little difficulty in comprehending what is meant by disease, which consists in some deviation from that state—some uneasy or unnatural sensation of which the patient is aware ”