Observations on the comparative state of medicine in France, England, and Germany : during a journey into these countries in the year 1835 / by Adolph Muehry ; translated from the German by Edward G. Davis.

  • Mühry, Adolf, 1810-1888.
Date:
1838
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the comparative state of medicine in France, England, and Germany : during a journey into these countries in the year 1835 / by Adolph Muehry ; translated from the German by Edward G. Davis. 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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    CHAPTER III. FRENCH MEDICINE. Broussais's doctrine ; extent of its influence—French medicine independently of Broue sais—Auscultation and percussion—Louis and the numerical method—Fievre ty- phoide—Reflections on French therapeutics—Ricord's observations and practice in the H6pital des Veneriens—Phrenology and Orthophrenia. We must now allude again to Broussais and his doctrines, with- out which, any account of French medicine must necessarily be imperfect. This brief review will probably make it evident to many that much of his doctrine has been adopted into the science, and has tended to form the peculiar national views on the subject. We shall speak first of Broussais's views on inflammation—then upon sympathy and revulsion—lastly, on the relative importance of the mucous membrane. Broussais does not pretend, in his pathology of inflammation, to explain its nature, but only to prove its extensive existence, and to demonstrate that the inflammatory condition of an organ is only an increase of its vitality; he dwells especially on the mere distinction of degree, but rejects the various forms of the disease. Hence he called his doctrine the physiological, because inflammation is not a new condition in the economy, but an exertion of the usual organic vitality. Thus the vascularity of the stomach during digestion is physiologically in its normal state, but pathologically somewhat increased. He rejects, therefore, what he terms entities, by which are meant separate and dissimilar conditions of the economy, and equally rejects all specific treatment. He denies scrofula and syphi- lis to be distinct entities, and seeks to explain the medicinal virtue of cinchona and of mercury, by the transfer of local irritation to internal mucous membranes. He proposes three degrees of phleg- masia ; beside inflammation there is sub-inflammation, in which there is no redness, because the red particles do not force their way into the serous vessels ; and likewise mere excitement or irri- tation. Broussais has pointed out the facts, that we may have an intense local inflammation in a weakened constitution ; that the greater part of diseases have an actual local cause, and that this is of an inflammatory or irritative nature—in fact, of a nature to be benefited by counter-irritation. Thus far he deserves credit for the pathology of pneumonia, bronchitis, pleurisy, and for the explana- tion of phthisis, asthma, whooping cough, hydrocephalus. He pointed out that inflammatory stimulus gives occasion to delirium, mania, epilepsy, apoplexy; farther to stricture, blennorrhea, adhe- sion. He thus supplied a cause for all the organic alterations which pathological anatomy found in such abundance, especially in regard to the alimentary canal; he maintained that pain was not always a companion of inflammation, that the mucous membrane might be inflamed alone and without involving the peritoneum, that dyspepsia.