The relations of morbid anatomy to practical medicine : being the closing lecture of the course upon physiology and pathology in the Hahnemann medical college for the session of 1860-61 / by R. Ludlam.

  • Ludlam, R. (Reuben), 1831-1899.
Date:
1861
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The relations of morbid anatomy to practical medicine : being the closing lecture of the course upon physiology and pathology in the Hahnemann medical college for the session of 1860-61 / by R. Ludlam. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    HE. This science affords the only reliable hey to the boun- daries of special disease, and hence has contributed more than all other agencies to the perfection of differential diag- nosis. I have taken occasion, during the course of lectures but just now completed, to exhibit to you, in the field of the microscope, the healthy histological anatomy of every structure found in the body. This has been done for the purpose of affording you an adequate idea of their variety, as well as of their mar- vellous adaptation to the performance of normal physiological functions. You are therefore cognizant of the fact that the organism which they represent has been fashioned with the most consummate skill. Let us suppose that either of the more highly vitalized of these textures is become the seat of disease. There will result an abnormal disturbance of function. Organic or sympathe- tic derangements follow, and from this source will arise the minutiae of a morbid symptomatology. The original cause of this perturbation in function, and of the embarrassment of .organic movement, whether material or otherwise, acts and operates, spends its force upon these delicate structures, and writes its record upon them also. From the little pimple of acne to a pulsating aneurism a morbid condition of system implies a pathological imprint upon each structure involved by the disease in question. And, as the photographic plate has no election of objects which it copies with such wonderful precision, but transfers as well the meaner as the more charming of them, so the delicate textures of our bodies are found to copy and transmit the peculiar features of special diseases. These are the tablets upon which are engraven the details of disease, the con- sequences of disorder. We may read, or we may gainsay the record; still the fact is self-evident that, to arrive at a correct understanding of pathological processes, we must become fa- miliar with the minutiae of morbid anatomy. He who is ignorant of this latter science does not deserve the name of physician. If we reflect for a moment upon the services which patho- logico-anatomical observations have rendered to practical me-