Clinical lectures on neurasthenia / by Thomas D. Savill.

  • Savill, Thomas Dixon, 1856-1910.
Date:
1902
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Clinical lectures on neurasthenia / by Thomas D. Savill. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    into some Poor-law Infirmary, and there die. I am well aware that it may be urged, on the other hand, that the out¬ patient department of a general hospital contains examples of most of the common and chronic ailments. This may be true, but every one knows how difficult it is adequately to study or treat such cases, on account of that unknown, yet confusing, factor, the patient’s home surroundings. More¬ over, on account of the uncertainty and irregularity of their attendances it is extremely difficult to follow the natural course of the disease; and the possibilities of obtaining autopsies are few and far between. Such then, gentlemen, is the ample material which is ready to our hands, material for the studies to which I have the honour to invite your co-operation. The only imper¬ fection of the situation is the paucity of workers, students old and young, qualified or unqualified ; but when I look at the numerous audience here to-day, I cease any longer to have any fears on this score. Plea for Specialism.—In view of the special opportunities in that direction afforded to us in this institution, we shall limit our investigations as far as may be convenient to disorders of the nervous system, though without excluding the other systems of the body, and especially the cardio¬ vascular system, with which the nervous system is so closely and intimately associated in several ways. Possibly, the question may be raised whether disease of the nervous system is a legitimate and desirable speciality. Now, this criticism might perhaps be just in regard to narrower domains, where the justification for specialism largely, if not entirely, rests upon the fact that exceptional experience is required for the necessary technique of treatment. But in a subject so vast, so unknown as that of the nervous