have opened to us other fields of little less interest and importance. Of such is the ophthalmoscope, invented by H. von Helmholtz in 1851. By the revelations of this Diagnosis. instrument not only have the diseases of the eye been illuminated, but much light has been thrown also upon the part of the eye in more general maladies; as, for instance, in syphilis, in diabetes, in kidney diseases, and in diseases of the brain—F. C. Donders (1818–1889), Alfred von Gräfe (1830–1899) and others. A remarkable help to the cure of headaches and wider nervous disorders has come out of the better appreciation and correction of errors of refraction in the eye. Radiography has done great things for surgery; for medicine its services are already appreciable, and may prove more and more valuable hereafter. In 1879 the use of the spectroscope in medicine was pointed out by Dr Charles A. MacMunn (b. 1852). By E. du Bois-Reymond, Robert Remak (1815–1865), Carlo Matteucci (1811–1868), Guillaume Duchenne (1806–1875), the value of electricity in medicine, greater in diagnosis perhaps than in therapeutics, was demonstrated. By the sphygmograph (E. J. Marey, 1863) attention was drawn to the physical features of the circulation, to the signs of degeneration of the arterial tree, and less definitely to the fluctuations of blood pressure; but as we have said under the consideration of diseases of the heart, the kymographs of Ludwig and his pupils brought out these fluctuations far more accurately and completely. By these, and other instruments of precision, such as the thermometer, of which we have already spoken, the eminently scientific discipline of the measurement of functional movements, so difficult in the complex science of biology, has been cultivated. By the laryngoscope, invented about 1850 by Manuel Garcia the celebrated singing-master, and perfected by Johann Czermak (1828–1873) and others, the diseases of the larynx also have been brought into the general light which has been shed on all fields of disease; and many of them, previously known more or less empirically, submitted to precise definition and cure. Of such we may cite tuberculosis of the larynx, formerly as incurable as distressing; and “adenoids”—a disease revealed by intrascopic methods—which used grievously to thwart and stifle the growth both of mind and body in children, are now promptly removed, to the infinite advantage of the rising generation. To the value of stains in clinical diagnosis, especially in investigation of perversions of the blood in many maladies, we have already made some reference. The discovery of the Röntgen rays has also extended the physician’s power of vision, as in cases of aortic aneurysm, and other thoracic diseases.
By photography and diagrammatic records the clinical work of hospital wards has been brought into some better definition, and teaching made more accurate and more impressive. The separation of the alkaloids belongs rather to the earlier part of the 19th century, but the administration of these more accurate medications by means of hypodermic injection (see Therapeutics) belongs to the latter. The ancient practice of transfusion has been placed on a more intelligible footing, and by the method of saline injections made more manageable as a means of relief or even of cure. Finally, calculation by statistics (William Farr, Karl Pearson, and others) has been brought into line with other scientific methods: the method is a difficult one, and one full of pitfalls for the unwary, yet when by co-operation of physician and mathematician its applications have been perfected its services will appear more and more indispensable.
Among the achievements of the medicine of the 19th century the growth of the medical press must not be forgotten. In England, by the boldness of the Lancet (founded in 1823), the tyranny of prescription, inveterate custom, and privilege abused was defied and broken down; freedom of learning was regained, and promotion thrown open to the competent, independently of family, gild and professional status. For the record and diffusion of rapidly growing knowledge, learned societies, universities and laboratories, greatly increased in number and activity, issue their transactions in various fields; and by means of yearbooks and central news-sheets the accumulation of knowledge is organized and made accessible.
It is interesting to find that, with all this activity in the present reformed methods of research and verification are not confined to the work of the passing day; in the brilliant achievements of modern research and reconstruction the maxim that “Truth is the daughter of Time” has not been forgotten. In the field of the History of Medicine the work of scholars such as Francis Adams of Banchory (1796–1861), William A. Greenhill (1814–1894) and C. Creighton in England, Maximilien P. Littré (1801–1881) and Charles V. Daremberg (1817–1872) in France, and Heinrich Häser (1811–1888) and August Hirsch, Diels, Weltmann and Julius Pagel in Germany, will prove to our children that tradition was as safe in our hands as progress itself. (T. C. A.)
Bibliography.—Osler and McCrae, Modern Medicine; F. T. Roberts, The Practice of Medicine (1909); Hermann Nothnagel, Internationale Beiträge zur inneren Medicin (1902); Ed. Brovardel, Traité de médecine (1895–1902); T. D. Savill, Clinical Medicine (1909); W. Osler, The Principles and Practice of Medicine (1909); Allbutt and Rolleston, A System of Medicine (1906–1910); Sir Patrick Manson, Tropical Medicine (1907); Frederick Taylor, A Manual of the Practice of Medicine (1908).
MEDINA, JOSE TORIBIO (1852–), Chilean bibliographer, was born at Santiago, and was educated for the bar. His first publication, when a very young man, was a metrical translation of Longfellow’s Evangeline. When twenty-two he was appointed secretary to the legation at Lima. After his return he published a history of Chilean literature (1878), and a work upon the aboriginal tribes (1884). In this latter year he was appointed secretary of legation in Spain, and availed himself of the opportunity of examining the treasures of the old Spanish libraries. These researches, repeated on subsequent visits to Spain, and also to France and England, enriched him with a mass of historical and bibliographical material. Among his publications may be mentioned the Biblioteca hispano-americana, a catalogue of all books and pamphlets relating to Spanish America printed in Spain; the Biblioteca hispano-chilena, a similar work, commenced in 1897; the standard and magnificent history of printing in the La Plata countries (1892); comprehensive works on the Inquisition in Chile, Peru and the Philippines; and the standard treatise on South American medals (1899). In addition, Señor Medina produced the fullest bibliographies yet attainable of books printed at Lima, Mexico and Manila, and a number of memoirs and other minor writings. No other man had rendered anything like the same amount of service to the literary history and bibliography of the Spanish colonies.
MEDINA, or rather Al-Medina (the city), or Medinat Rasul Allah (the city of the apostle of God), a town of the Hejaz in Arabia, about 820 m. by rail S.S.E. of Damascus, in 25° N., 40° E.,[1] the refuge of Mahomet on his emigration from Mecca, and a renowned place of Moslem pilgrimage, consecrated by the possession of his tomb. The name Medina goes back to the Koran (sur. xxxiii. 60); the old name was Yathrib, the Lathrippa of Ptolemy and Iathrippa of Stephanus Byzantius.
Medina stands in a basin at the northern extremity of an elevated plain, on the western skirt of the mountain range which divides the Red Sea coast-lands from the central plateau of Arabia. At an hour’s distance to the north it is dominated by Mount Ohod, an outlying spur of the great mountains, the scene of the well-known battle (see Mahomet), and the site of the tomb and mosque of the Prophet’s uncle Hamza. To the east the plain is bounded by a long line of hills eight or ten hours distant, over which the Nejd road runs. A number of torrent courses (of which Wadi Kanat to the north, at the foot of Mount Ohod, and W. Akik, some miles to the south, are the most important) descend from the mountains, and converge in the neighbourhood of the town to unite farther west at a place called Zaghaba, whence they descend to the sea through the “mountains of the Tehama”—the rough country between Medina and its
- ↑ This is a very rough estimate. The road from Yambu on the Red Sea, which runs somewhat north of east, is by Burton’s estimate 132 m. From Medina to Mecca by the inland or high road he makes 248 m. The usual road near the coast by Rabigh and Khulesa and thence to W. Fatima cannot be very different in length. Caravans traverse it in about ten or eleven days.
