Excerpt from Internal Medicine

Doubtless there has rarely been a teacher of medicine who has been satisfied with the books which his students have had to use. The large treatises are too long, too rich in information for those entering upon the study of medicine, while many of the shorter works are mere cata logues of facts. It has seemed to the writer, after many years' teaching, that there was a distinct need both among students and practitioners of a work which Should give in compact form the more important facts of the subjects included in the domain' of internal medicine. Just as the modern builder rears his frame-work of steel and upon this suspends the walls, the floors and the ornamentation of his building, so the student must outline his subject in his mind, and later add the details. The beauty of the building will depend upon the finish, its strength must lie in the frame work. The purpose of the present work is to supply the frame work of internal medicine.

The title has been chosen in recognition of the need of a term which shall denote those subjects left of the older practice of medicine when all the specialties have been subtracted from it, those subjects which are, after all, the fundamentals of our study.

The arrangement of the subjects has been dictated by the wish to put the simpler first, and to present Something of a logical order of study. The placing of some subjects, such as that of small-pox, among diseases due to animal parasites, is questionable, but in such instances it has seemed well to follow the best leading we have at present, although we may be. Uncertain of its correctness. The final classification of many of the familiar diseases must long remain doubtful. Syphilis has for years been regarded as surely a bacterial disease and classified accordingly. The recent studies apparently prove the specific organism to belong to the lower orders of the animal kingdom. At any time further investi gation may restore the disease to its older position In like manner the specific agents of scarlet fever, measles, and other exanthemata are as sumed to be bacteria, and these diseases are placed accordingly. The eager investigations now going on in so many laboratories may any day give one or more of these diseases a new position. We must act upon our present knowledge, with full consciousness that much of it may to morrow require revision.

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