Practical medicine and medical diagnosis / by Byrom Bramwell.

  • Bramwell, Byrom, Sir, 1847-1931.
Date:
1887
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Practical medicine and medical diagnosis / by Byrom Bramwell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    20/164 (page 12)
    I have now detailed to you the ordinary means by wliich we arrive at our diagnosis, viz., by the method of cUdmtion. In some cases we employ another method, viz., the metlwd of exclusion or negation When, for example, the facts seem to point to several, say four, different .affec- tions without indicating any one of them in particular, we endeavour Fig. 2.—The heart from the case of pericarditis referred to in the text; the letter a points to a portion of the heart covered by rough, recent lymph ; to a de- tached shred of lymph ; c, to a portion of the heart from which the lymph has been removed. to find some symptom which negatives or contradicts, and so excludes one of the four; the same process is again, if possible, repeated, and so on until three of the four are excluded, and one alone remauis. This rnetliod of negation is of value in some difficult cases, but, 'it is a roundabout method' (Da Costa), and is not adapted for general use.