Method of examining and recording medical cases / by William R. Sanders.

  • Sanders, Bill (William R.)
Date:
1873
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Method of examining and recording medical cases / by William R. Sanders. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    to investigate—viz., the nervous system. The Thorax compre¬ hends two systems—the respiratory and the circulatory ; while the Abdomen includes three systems—viz., the digestive, the urinary, and the generative. It is made a rule that, in the course of the examination, the systems contained in the same cavity should always be taken immediately one after the other, before we pass to the systems in another cavity. Thus, the respiratory and circulatory systems being both thoracic, must be examined in im¬ mediate sequence; and, in the abdominal region, the digestive, urinary, and generative systems must be kept in close relation to each other. This rule does not forbid that in the thoracic region the circulatory may, if thought fit, be taken before the respiratory system, or vice versa; or that in the abdominal region the genito¬ urinary system may take precedence and be followed by the digestive or vice versa. But it requires that the systems belonging to different regions shall not be intermixed. We must not go at random from the urinary to the respiratory, and from that to the nervous sys¬ tem, next to the digestive, and finally to the circulatory system, etc. To do so would risk confusion and omissions. It would vio¬ late the principle of Regional division, the advantage of which con¬ sists partly in associating together those systems whose chief organs are in anatomical proximity, and partly in securing that when a region has been examined, the included systems have ne¬ cessarily been examined with it. On commencing the investigation of the Internal regions or cavi¬ ties, and their relative systems, the question occurs, Which region should be first examined ? and which system in that region should have precedence ? In the Table, the head happens to be placed first, then the thorax, and lastly the abdomen. But no necessary precedence is intended by this order. On the contrary, as it is a matter of indifference, per se? which internal region is taken first, the rule is given to begin with that region and system which the previous inquiries have indicated as the chief seat of disease. Thus, in cases of paralysis, we should, after finishing the external regions, begin the internal examination with the nervous system (it would be absurd to begin with the digestive organs) ; in heart disease, with the circulatory organs; in phthisis puimonalis, with the respiratory system, etc. After finishing the systems in one internal region or cavity, we take next the cavity which has most connexion with the one examined, either anatomically the adjoining cavity) or in relation to the disease. In associating the Systems with the Internal Regions or cavities, the consideration must be specially kept in view, that only the central organs of a system are contained within a given cavity, ■while the other parts of the apparatus are distributed throughout the body. Thus, while the brain and spinal cord are lodged in the cranio-vertebral cavity, the various nerves take their course throughout the organism. Similarly, the heart is lodged in the