The cyclopaedia of practical medicine: comprising treatises on the nature and treatment of diseases, materia medica and therapeutics, medical jurisprudence, etc., etc (Volume 1).

Date:
1845
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The cyclopaedia of practical medicine: comprising treatises on the nature and treatment of diseases, materia medica and therapeutics, medical jurisprudence, etc., etc (Volume 1). 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.)

    11/790
    and a lingering attachment to opinions of which all the foundations had been shaken; the student of medicine and the young practitioner found themselves embarrassed in the attempt to arrive at stable conclusions, or even to comprehend the actual state at which medicine had arrived, and which no general work at that t.me represented. All these circumstances encouraged the presumption that if a work embodying al' these improved parts of medical knowledge,— simply and conveniently arranged, and not unenriched by the treasures of an older period—full and accurate, but from which all the superfluous matter that had been admitted into some foreign works of a like form was carefully excluded, — were offered in the English language, its reception would be such as to satisfy all who were concerned in it, whilst its pre- paration would reflect no discredit on those who undertook it. It was in no small degree gratifying to the Editors to find that the publication of the early numbers of the Cyclopaedia was attended with circumstances which, conveyed an assurance of the general correctness of these views. The circulation of the work soon extended to every portion of the British empire, to the Colonies, and to America; and the publishers have from time to time informed them that it? sale was steadily proceeding. The Editors have undoubtedly received these inti- mations with pleasure; not only because they were connected with benefit derived by those who had adventured in a liberal undertaking, but because they thought, they perceived in such circumstances a proof of an increasing zeal for exact and comprehensive knowledge on the part of British practitioners of every rank, in every part of the world. However natural and proper it may be for the Editors to take a retrospective survey of the work when it is brought to a conclusion, and to examine with what fidelity they have fulfilled their engagements, and how far and how equally the various departments of practical medicine have in their turn occupied their atten- tion, it is hardly possible to express the results of this retrospection in words whicli will not expose them to the charge of being disposed to look back upon their exer- tions with too much complacency. Yet they may perhaps be allowed to say, that if the reader will take the trouble to inspect the mere titles of the articles con- tained in these columns, comprehending nearly three hundred original essays of known and distinguished authors, and will bear in mind either the leading physio- logical divisions of diseases, or consider them with reference to the head, the chest, the abdomen, the surface, or the general condition of the body; as well as the subjects of obstetrical medicine, materia medica, or medical jurisprudence ; he will sufficiently appreciate the care bestowed to make the Cyclopaedia satisfactory to all who refer to its pages, and at the same time strictly a book of practical reference. No subject, it is believed, immediately practical in its nature or appli- cation, has been left out, although unnecessary disquisition has been as much as possible avoided. It has consistently entered into their plan to admit of a far wider range of subjects than appears heretofore to have been considered necessary in works pro- fessedly written on the practice of medicine, but a range comprising many new subjects of extreme importance to those engaged in practice or preparing for it. Such are the subjects of Abstinence, Acupuncture, Age, Change of Air, Antiphlo- gistic Regimen, Asphyxia, Auscultation, Bathing, Bloodletting, Morbid States of the Blood, Climate, Cold, Contagion, Convalescence, Counter-irritation, Derivation, Congestion and Determination of Blood, Dietetics, Disinfection, Physical Educa- Vol. I. —2