The diagnosis and treatment of digestive diseases : a practical treatise for students and practitioners of medicine / by George M. Niles.

  • Niles, George McCallum, 1864-
Date:
[1914], ©1914
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The diagnosis and treatment of digestive diseases : a practical treatise for students and practitioners of medicine / by George M. Niles. 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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    PREFACE In advancing this volume, it is not my purpose to assist in the erroneous movement for divorcing gastrointestinal diseases from the broad field of internal medicine to which they rightfully belong, but to answer, for the student and busy general practitioner, two important questions regarding these diseases, namely, What is the disorder? and What should be done for itf Not only general practitioners, but specialists in other lines, who find it necessary to keep informed in a general way concerning digestion and nutrition, have discussed with me what they desire in such a book. Briefly stated, they need a compact book, which shall contain first, concise, but easily intelligible, descriptions of the various reliable tests for the objects of study in the gastric contents, intestinal juices, and feces; second, practicable and least disturbing methods of determining the position, size, motility, etc., of the stomach, intestines, and other abdom- inal viscera; third, a succinct statement of the diagnostic methods indicated in the recognition of digestive diseases; and, finally, an exhaustive discussion of both general and special therapy as applied to these diseases. This I have endeavored to accomplish. I have, how- ever, purposely omitted lengthy arguments of unsettled etiologic questions, prolix descriptions of rare conditions which possess only academic interest, and the consideration of pathologic states of a purely surgical nature. On the other hand, remembering Herbert Spencer's words, that To so present ideas that they may be appre- hended with the least possible mental effort, is a desidera- tum, and recognizing the importance of economizing the reader's attention, I have earnestly labored to express my- self in a clear and explicit manner.