Volume 1

A dictionary of medicine : including general pathology, general therapeutics, hygiene, and the diseases peculiar to women and children / by various writers ; edited by Richard Quain.

Date:
1882
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A dictionary of medicine : including general pathology, general therapeutics, hygiene, and the diseases peculiar to women and children / by various writers ; edited by Richard Quain. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    11/947
    PREFACE. The vast number of facts and observations, by which the recent progress of scientific and practical medicine has been marked, is dif- fusely recorded in the Transactions of learned societies, in journals, in monographs, and in systematic treatises. With progress so rapid, and information so diffused, it is extremely difficult alike for the practitioner, the teacher, and the student to keep pace. It was the perception of this difficulty which induced the Editor, when invited to undertake the production of a new Medical Dictionary, to engage in a task which, he was fully conscious, must be one of great labour and of great responsibility. He felt, however, that he would be rendering useful service to his Profession if he could bring together the latest and most complete information in a form which would allow of ready and easy reference. Accordingly, he invited the co-operation of certain of his colleagues and professional friends, both in this country and abroad; and evidence of the readiness with which this invitation has been accepted, is afforded by the list of contributors. Each contributor volunteered or was invited to write on a subject with which he was specially familiar. The present work, which is the result of these combined efforts, may therefore be regarded not only as a dictionary, but also as a treatise on systematic medicine, in which the articles on the more important subjects constitute monographs in themselves, whilst definitions and descriptions of matters having less claim to extended notice are given as fully as is required. Thus an endeavour has been made to supply, in a clear, condensed, and readily accessible form, all the information that is at present available for the use of the practitioner of medicine. As indicated on the title-page, the work is primarily a dictionary of Medicine, in which the several diseases are fully discussed in alphabetical order. The description of each includes an account of its