Volume 1

Pediatrics : the hygienic & medical treatment of children / by Thomas Morgan Rotch.

  • Rotch, T. M. (Thomas Morgan), 1849-1914.
Date:
1896
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Pediatrics : the hygienic & medical treatment of children / by Thomas Morgan Rotch. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    PEDIATRICS. DIVISION I. INTRODUCTORY—THE INFANT AT TERM. LECTURE I. INTRODUCTORY.—THE FCETAL CIRCULATION. Gentlemen,—We are to-day beginning the study of a branch of medicine which will be of the greatest practical importance to you in your future careers. Those of you who enter into general practice will at once be called upon to treat infants and children. The proper appreciation of the sensitive temperaments and needs of this class of patients will be of great aid in successfully establishing your practice among those whose favor- able opinion may make or mar your professional success. The difficulties to be surmounted in correctly diagnosticating and treating young children are far greater than those which you encounter in adult life. The reason for this is that for adult cases you have some standard by which you can be guided, being yourselves adults. What standard, however, have you for the feelings and sensitive organization of the child? None within your- selves ; it must all come from long and patient observation, with its re- sulting experience. The mere knowledge that certain diseases exist, and the usual methods of diagnosticating them, prove to be very inadequate when we are brought face to face with a sick and fretful child, or with an infant who is unable to describe its symptoms. Much additional knowledge is needed to enable us to understand the variety of symptoms which may arise in the same disease according to the age and individuality of the patient. It is now well recognized that there is a necessity for making a special study of children beyond what is learned in the general clinical study of adults. As our knowledge advances, we learn to appreciate that the various methods of treatment must be modified to correspond not so much