Original cases with dissections and observations illustrating the use of the stethoscope and percussion in the diagnosis of diseases of the chest : also commentaries on the same subjects selected and translated from Avenbrugger, Corvisart, Laennec and others / by John Forbes.

  • Forbes, John, Sir, 1787-1861.
Date:
1824
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Original cases with dissections and observations illustrating the use of the stethoscope and percussion in the diagnosis of diseases of the chest : also commentaries on the same subjects selected and translated from Avenbrugger, Corvisart, Laennec and others / by John Forbes. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

    17/354
    just published, on the subject of Diagnosis, it is mentioned in a manner sufficiently characteristic of the degree of information respecting it, which prevails in this country. Foreign phy- sicians (says this writer) are of opinion that much knowledge of the nature of affections of the lungs may be derived from the percussion of the Thorax ; and for the purpose of convey- ing the sound they employ a peculiar instrument.* In this sentence it is evident that the author confounds together Per- cussion and Mediate Auscultation. In determining to give an English dress to the treatise on Percussion, it became a matter of consideration whether to present it in its original quaint form, of Observation, Axiom, and Scholium ; or, by melting down and remoulding it, toge- ther with the French commentary, to give to the whole the ap- pearance of a new work both in manner and matter. By adopting this plan, there is little doubt, I think, that I might have produced a more agreeable and more readable performance; though I question whether I could have rendered the subject clearer or more impressive. But against this proceeding, were there no other reasons, I think those so honorably ad- duced by Corvisart, for a similar forbearance on his part, are all-sufficient, and indeed unanswerable. His words are— ° Sachant bien le peu de gloire devolu a presque tous les tra- ducteurs , comme au tres grand-nombre des commentateurs , j'aurais pu m'elever au rang d'auteur en refondant Poeuvre d'Avenbrugger, et en publiant un ouvrage sur la percussion. Mais , par-la, je sacrifiais le nom d'Avenbrugger a ma propre vanite ; je ne l'ai pas voulu; c'est lui, c'est sa belle et legitime decouverte, (inventum novum, comVne il le dit justement) que j'ai voulu faire revivre, Heureux , si je contribue seulement a en faire sentir Pimportance , et si les praticiens scrupuleux ne dedaignent point d*ajouter a beaucoup de signes infideles , un moyen plus sur de s'eclairer dans la recherche de la plupart des affections de la poitrine. Pref. p. xm. * Buchan's Symptomatology, p. 36.