PREFACE To bring the broad domain of practical medicine fairly within the grasp of the family physician, and to assist the advanced student in acquiring a clinical foundation has been my aim. The general practitioner, representing the unity and connection of the various branches of medical practice, must grasp the practical details of his art in order to be useful at the bedside; and a book to be of value to the family physician should convey clinical experience without the exhaustive and often purely theoretical details to be found and sought for in monographs. Such a work I have endeavored to write. It has been my desire to reestablish the relations of internal medicine, surgery, and the several specialties; for this reason I have presented specialistic methods from the view-point of the general clinician. Disease is neither medical nor surgical nor does it hover on the border lines, but the treatment of disease has become more surgical and the arbitary division into medical and surgical disease is no longer tenable. This unitarian principle should not be ignored in the presentation of disease, and many methods of diagnosis and treatment originally worked out by the specialist have become, or should become, common property. Drugs no longer dominate our therapeutics; therefore the prominence given to hygienic, prophylactic, dietetic, hydrotherapeutic, and physical methods of treatment. At the same time well-tried and valuable formulæ are distributed throughout the book. In prescription writing the apothecaries' weight and not the metric system. has been used. However, simple rules for converting one into the other are given. The special chapters on the Technique of Diagnosis and Laboratory Aids, on Pædiatrics, and the various specialties, on diseases of the Osseous, Muscular, and Articular System, on Nutrition and Diet, on the Management of Dropsy and Effusion, on Massage, Vibration, Dry Hot Air Treatment, Poisons and Anæsthesia, it is to be hoped will not be an unwelcome addition to a book on practice. Each chapter is prefaced by a synopsis of its contents and by brief introductory remarks on the clinical pathology of its subjects. In writing this book a lucid brevity in general diction has been the aim of the author. The bulk of this volume is from the author's pen. The chapter on Orthopedics was contributed by Dr. C. Jaeger, Chief of the Orthopaedic Department of Vanderbilt Clinic, New York. My brother, Wm. Caillé, D.D.S., is the author of the Essay on the Care of the Teeth. Dr. R. L. Loughran has contributed Instructions for Keeping Case Records and Accounts. Dr. R. H. Halsey and Dr. H. B. Sheffield, both instructors in Medicine in the New York Post-Graduate Medical School and Hospital, have given valuable aid in preparing the chapter on Infectious Fevers and Dermatological Memoranda. In revising some of the special chapters, the author has received helpful suggestions from Dr. T. M. Brooks, Professor of Histology and Pathology ; Dr. G. M. Edebohls, Professor of Gynecology; Dr. F. Torek, Professor of Surgery; Dr. G. M. Schlapp, Neurologist, Cornell University; and Dr. C. Mund, New York Ophthalmic and Aural Institute. Dr. I. H. Berry has aided faithfully in arranging the manuscript, and my assistants in various institutions have helped to collect histories and original illustrations. The very excellent index is the work of Miss M. S. E. Carswell. The author tenders appreciative thanks to all who have aided in this undertaking. To the publishers, thanks are due for their unvarying courtesy and hearty cooperation during the preparation of the work. 753 MADISON AVENUE, NEW YORK. AUGUSTUS Caillé. |
