Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II. DURATION AND SEQUENCE OF PHENOMENA. Dividing Diseases into Acute and Chronic?Long Ailment?Pain in reference to Duration?Order of Sequence?Established Course of Disease. The inquiry into the first manifestation of any deviation from health, the duration of the disease, and the order and sequence of the phenomena, is of considerable importance, as defining in general terms not only the whole period of the illness, but also, in some measure, the continuance of each particular derangement, and establishing a certain relation between each new symptom and that which immediately preceded it. From the preliminary inquiry as to the age, occupation, and habits of the patient, valuable suggestions are sometimes obtained. We need not dwell upon the variations in the character of diseases, as they occur in infancy, youth, adult life, and old age, because these are rather associated with stages of development than with periods of years; but we may refer to the information of tardy growth or premature decay, which the contrast between the actual and the probable age of the individual sometimes reveals; and to the liability at certain ages to the occurrence of specific diseases. In a still more marked manner does the occupation of the patient become the direct index of the disease under which he is laboring, as we know that in the pursuit of certain trades jnen are necessarily exposed to the influence of various morbid agencies. Nor less important is a knowledge of previous habits in enabling us to calculate the strength of constitution, or the tendency to unhealthy action, in warning us that certain modes of treatment must or must not be adopted, and in pointing out the diseases which will be the probable consequence of baneful indulgences. 1. Duration divides disease...