A treatise on the diseases of infants, founded on recent clinical observations and investigations in pathological anatomy made at the Hospice des Enfans-Trouvés : with a dissertation on the viability of the child / by C.M. Billard ; with notes by Dr. Ollivier ; translated from the third French edition, with an appendix, by James Stewart.

  • Billard, C. (Charles-Michel), 1800-1832.
Date:
1839
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on the diseases of infants, founded on recent clinical observations and investigations in pathological anatomy made at the Hospice des Enfans-Trouvés : with a dissertation on the viability of the child / by C.M. Billard ; with notes by Dr. Ollivier ; translated from the third French edition, with an appendix, by James Stewart. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    In this class of contributors to science is the author of the follow- ing pages, and their fjerusal will show that he has not been less per- severing in his researches than his predecessors. The field chosen by him is new, not having heretofore received the attention of any who have occupied themselves in the investigations of pathological truths. While the fact that each texture possesses, equally with its particular species of vitality, its own peculiar diseased action, has been proved by others, he has shown that the period of life exercises also an important influence in the development of morbid affection. The application of these discoveries must undoubtedly be of great practical benefit to medicine. In addition to pathology, another object of the author is to add something to the stock of legal medicine. Too implicit a reliance in a legal question on any one appearance of the body of a child, however unerring the inferences may have sometimes been, will often lead to error, from circumstances arising that lessen the value of the appearances which various parts exhibit. The discovery, therefore, of new facts, and by their assemblage and joint concurrence to re- move all causes of fallacy, is a desideratum with all medical jurists, and is only to be attained by diligent, close, and continually-extended observation ; and it is the mutual relation thus ascertained which alone will arrest the fluctuating opinions of medical witnesses, and give some degree of certainty to medical evidence. In this depart- ment, the author has detailed a number of interesting facts, with ad- mirable discrimination and a happy clearness of illustration. For the additional remarks on this subject, the translator is indebted to Dr. John W. Francis, late Professor of Forensic Medicine, who, with his characteristic kindness, cheerfully complied with the request for permission to record in the appendix his experience and opinions on a matter of so interesting a nature. The great number of cases which the author has submitted to examination,—his careful discrimination of the various appearances on dissection,—his separation of complicated cases from those in which the disease under consideration appeared unmixed, that the detail of symptoms might be a clear indication of the anatomical changes,—make this work a valuable pathological record for the practitioner; while from the many novel facts it contains connected with the subject of infanticide, it will be found to be equally valuable as an addition to the library of the student of medical jurisprudence. New-York, September, 1839.