Differential Diagnosis: The Interpretation of Clinical Evidence.

Abstract

I am glad I read the text of this book before reading the introduction. I formed the opinion that the book reflected much more than just the contributions of Harvey and Bordley—thatthat it was, in fact, the embodiment of work done in the great clinical tradition of William Osler, handed down through Thayer, Barker, Hamman, and Longcope to the authors. The introduction demonstrates this as the purpose and the method. This book in a way develops the history of clinical medicine as it evolved at the Johns Hopkins Hospital and Medical School. But in a larger sense it exemplifies certain characteristically American features of clinical teaching, emphasizing the clinical pathological conference and teaching at the bedside. This book plays on varying themes—— the clinical history, clinical examination, laboratory examinations, the narrative of the course of a disease, and the final exposition by the pathologist of the findings at autopsy. The