Hints for clinical clerks in medical cases / Westminster Hospital.

  • Westminster Hospital
Date:
[1863?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Hints for clinical clerks in medical cases / Westminster Hospital. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    HINTS FOE CLINICAL CLEEKS IN MEDICAL CASES. 1. Preliminary Description ; — Name ; nation; age; residence; occupation; whether mar¬ ried or single; when admitted. I.—PRESENT STATE. A. — POINTS TO BE NOTICED BEFORE PRO¬ CEEDING TO PUT ANY SPECIAL QUES¬ TIONS TO THE PATIENT OR OTHERS. 2. Conformation^ as to size, state of nutrition, figure, apparent vigour, temperament,* and so on. For example: Tall, emaciated, narrow-chested, delicate, with wasted arms, clubbed fingers, adunque nails, thin hair, as in many cases of phthisis:—Short, stout and squat, head large, face red, neck short and thick, as in cases where there is a special tendency to apoplexy:—Fed or light brown hair, blue * The fluid parts of the body, according to Hippocrates, consist of four secondary elements—blood, phlegm orpituita,and two kindsof bile, namely, yellow bile and black bile or atrabilis—and the celebrated fourfold division of constitutions or temperaments is based upon the supposed preponderance in different persons of one or other of these so-called elements. If blood be in excess, the temperament is the sanguine; if phlegm, the phlegmatic ; if bile, the choleric; if black bile, the melancholic. This ancient theory has exploded long ago, but the ancient divisions of constitutions or tem¬ peraments remain, and so do the ancient names, for these names have been too long in use to make it possible to abandon them for others. The nervous temperament, which is a creation of modern times, has no certain and definite characteristics.