A treatise on pathological anatomy / by Carl Rokitansky ; translated from the German, with additions of diagnosis from Schoenlein, Skoda, and others by John C. Peters.

  • Rokitansky, Carl von, 1804-1878.
Date:
1845
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on pathological anatomy / by Carl Rokitansky ; translated from the German, with additions of diagnosis from Schoenlein, Skoda, and others by John C. Peters. 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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    thod. The first emancipated himself from the incubus of ideal pathology and false diagnosis, and now teaches general patholo- gy and morbid anatomy unobstructed by them. It is sufficient for Rokitansky's class to witness at least four or six, and fre- quently ten or twelve, post-mortems every morning; to hear the record of each case read, and the post-mortem appearances dic- tated aloud ; to be required every afternoon to perform an autopsy in turn, describe the healthy and morbid appearances they meet with in each cavity and tissue, and answer the ques- tions of the professor upon the subject; to listen to Rokitansky's remarks upon all the morbid specimens which have been collect- ed during the day, and finally, when thus grounded in the princi- ples of pathological science, and their eyes made familiar with diseased appearances, to follow him to the museum and hear an elaborate course of lectures, illustrated by the largest and most valuable collection of morbid specimens now extant. The rest of practical medicine can be learned at the bedside in the hospi- tal, from teachers as competent in their peculiar departments as Rokitansky is in his, and mainly rendered so by the impulse which has been given to their studies by the peculiar labors of Rokitansky. The Philadelphia Medical Examiner (see No. for August 5, 1843) has taken its cue and its materials from the Dublin Jour- nal : from it /We learn that The present Vienna school of Pathologic^ Anatomy, under the celebrated Rokitansky, has of late acquired much notoriety. Though an unrivalled pathologi- cal anatomist, he is in reality no pathologist, and as all his de- ductions are drawn from cadaveric appearances, his opinions on disease should be received with great reserve. We hazard this little caution here, because Rokitansky's reputation is a rapidly growing one, and as authority is every thing now-a-days in med- icine, in a few years we shall not be surprised if the most as- tounding theories become the vogue, solely because they emanate from the fashionable Vienna professor. His late theory on Ty- phus is a specimen of what we may anticipate from a man whose studies are thus exclusive. As Rokitansky is the acknowledged head of the Young Vienna school, and as he is a man of great