The etiology, pathology, and treatment of diseases of the hip joint / by Robert W. Lovett.

  • Lovett, Robert W. (Robert Williamson), 1859-1924.
Date:
1891
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The etiology, pathology, and treatment of diseases of the hip joint / by Robert W. Lovett. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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    Chapter I. INTRODUCTION AND CLASSIFICATION. In the present state of Pathology it is impossible to present any classification of diseases of the hip joint which shall be exact, or which shall be sanctioned by authority weighty enough to give it pre-eminence. It is essentially a time of transition in the history of the pathology of bone and joint disease, a time when tuberculosis has sprung into such prominence that the tendency is to refer to it the great mass of all chronic bone and joint disease. Coming as it did upon a pathology in which tuberculosis played a minor part, this change has disturbed the former arrangement; and enough time has not yet elapsed for the evolution of a new and permanent basis of classification. Consequently, each one who deals with these subjects has to formulate for him- self, as best he can under the existing conditions, the phe- nomena occurring in diseased joints. The classification given here is merely a scheme of abnor- mal conditions, which are to be clearly recognized in the hip joint, and which, it is hoped, has at least the merit of being practical. It follows no authority, because there is none to follow; and it must stand on its own merits as a practical working classification. It does not enter into the refine- ments of subdivision, and so far as is practicable it rests upon a pathological basis. It has not been possible, for obvious reasons, to follow this out rigidly ; but, so far as possible, a pathological rather than an etiological basis has been adopted.