GEORGE HARLEY, M.D.,
Professor of Medical Jurisprudence in University College, London; Assistant Physician to University College Hospital; Formerly President of the Parisian Medical Society; Cor. Memb. of the Academy of Sciences of Bavaria, and of the Royal Academy of Medicine of Madrid.
So rapid is the advance of science, that the theory regarded as true to-day, may be recognised as false to-morrow. The facts, however, on which the theory is based, if rightly observed, remain unaltered, and unalterable.
LONDON:
WALTON AND MABERLY,
UPPER GOWER STREET, AND IVY LANE, PATERNOSTER ROW.
MDCCCLXIII.
LONDON:
WILLIAM STEVENS, PRINTER, 37, BELL YARD,
TEMPLE BAR.
TO
WILLIAM SHARPEY, M.D., LL.D., F.R.S.,
Professor of Anatomy and Physiology in University College, London,
AS
A SMALL TOKEN OF A COLLEAGUE'S ESTEEM
FOR
A PROFOUND THINKER, A SOUND REASONER,
AND
A TRUE FRIEND.
PREFACE.
"Time being money," quite as much to the professional as it is to the mercantile man, the author has endeavoured in the accompanying monograph not only to condense his material, but to exclude the consideration of any question not directly bearing upon the pathology or treatment of jaundice; indeed, as stated in the Introduction, one of the chief objects of the author having been to point out how valuable an adjunct modern physiological, and chemical knowledge is in the diagnosis, and treatment of hepatic and pancreatic disease, he has neither dwelt on the literature nor discussed the old theories of the mechanism of jaundice, but limited himself almost entirely to a brief exposition of his own views. For the sake of brevity, he has at [page 132] put into a tabular form the pathology of jaundice, according to the opinions expressed in the body of the volume.
As the object of all theory, and the aim of all science, is to insure wise practice, the author desires to call special attention to that portion of the work devoted to the chemistry of the excretions, feeling, as he does, that we are entering upon the threshold of an important department of medical inquiry, which, sooner or later, will be followed by valuable practical results. He would also direct the special attention of his readers to the chapter devoted to treatment, being sanguine enough to imagine that the adoption of the principles he has enunciated regarding the mode of action, and administration of the remedies usually employed in hepatic affections, may conduce to a more rational and successful method of treatment than has hitherto been employed. He even goes far enough to hope that the result of the treatment, as shown in the cases cited, will not only justify the adoption of the principles on which it is founded, but also prove a strong incentive to others to follow the line of diagnosis he has striven to inculcate.