A treatise on pathological anatomy / by Carl Rokitansky ; translated from the German, with additions of diagnosis from Schoenlein, Skoda, and others by John C. Peters.

  • Rokitansky, Carl von, 1804-1878.
Date:
1845
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on pathological anatomy / by Carl Rokitansky ; translated from the German, with additions of diagnosis from Schoenlein, Skoda, and others by John C. Peters. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    training to which his naturally researchful and truthful impulses have been subjected through a long series of years. Rioht honestly and modestly does he perform his delicate duties; ever inclining to the side of mercy, he is firm enough to add the weight of his testimony to that which has been accumulated against a trembling or hardened criminal, and never is found weak enough or mean enough to gloss over the mistakes or flatter the vanity of hospital physicians. In order to fully appreciate Rokitansky, he should be seen and heard when a discussion ensues between him and the clinical professors; at such moments the fruits of his extensive knowledge, gained by long service in a hospital where nearly thirty thousand patients are treated yearly, by nearly twenty years' service in the dead-house, and by a most extended and accurate course of reading, are brought to bear upon the case in question, in a rapid and condensed, but graphic and truthful manner. These ever-occurring discussions would alone prevent his sinking into a mere morbid anatomist, for daily he is thrown in collision with learned clinical professors, and their opinions of the origin, nature, progress, and proper treatment of disease are constantly dinned into his ears, and are as frequently con- trasted with Andral's, Louis's, Cruvelhier's, and other morbid anatomists, and his own deductions drawn from the cadaveric appearances, and quickly he is transformed into a learned gen- eral pathologist. Impartial reviewers should be cautious how they hazard a lance against the victor in a thousand conflicts. It is interesting to inquire what effects are produced upon the clinical professors and resident physicians : daily they appear in the presence of their classes, before a reserved but kindly man— before an experienced and truthful pathological anatomist, as it were, to render an account of their convictions as to the nature and treatment of disease. Frequently we have seen the cheeks of proud clinical professors and vain resident physicians mantled with shame, when an impartial and careful post-mortem has revealed their errors in diagnosis and treatment ; but still more frequently we have seen the accurate predictions of Skoda, Helm, Schuh, &ic, he, confirmed and received with plaudits by the assembled host of students and foreign physicians, who have