Symptoms and Their Interpretation.

This contribution by McKenzie is designed to assist in placing Medicine in that position in science which ought of right to belong to her, and to make it less possible for skilled surgeons and diagnosticians to give widely divergent opinions as to the nature of a complaint in some single individual. After an introduction in which Mackenzie emphasizes the importance of accuracy of observation and correctness of method—which, of course, must be based on exact knowledge of anatomy and physiology—the bulk of the work is devoted to analyzing symptoms as they are to be found in practice and emphasizing the misleading and reflex character often assumed. Mackenzie closes by calling attention to the necessity of interpreting the symptoms found, in relation to the body as a whole, and to the particular patient in hand. It is only by bearing in mind every source from which a given symptom may arise