65 
PATHOLOGY. 
in an hofpital as to teach the powers of drugs. Yet we 
have feen hofpitals where no fuch thing as a diet-tabie 
exifted ; or if it did exift, it w'as at lead never fubmitted 
to the examination of the ftudents; and we have ob- 
ferved, that it was in regulating the diet of their pa¬ 
tients, that young pra&itioners, iffuing from fuch a 
fchool, were ever molt at a lofs. 
The number of patients treated in this clinic, during 
the fchool-year, is above 200. They are chofen out of a 
thoufand patients; and the fele&ion made by Hilden¬ 
brand, as well as his w'hole manner of conduCfing the 
ciinic, feemed highly judicious. He did not fearch for 
extraordinary cafes, feldom ventured upon new experi¬ 
ments, and defpifed to raife the wonder of the unexpe¬ 
rienced by a fliow of boldnefs or of novelty. It w r as the 
great objeCt of his inftruttions to make known to his 
pupils what is already approved and certain in the heal¬ 
ing art, and to teach them the method of obferving, 
examining, and treating, every kind of internal difeafe. 
He chofe from among the numerous patients who daily 
entered the hofpital, fome acute cafes, and fome chronic, 
fome common, and occafionally tome which were rare ; 
but his choice never feemed to be made with the view of 
putting to the teft any whim of the day, nor of flattering 
the paflions of the young for remedies, and even for 
difeafes, which are fuppofed to be newly difcovered. 
Puerperal women, patients with fyphilis, and children, 
were occafionally admitted. 
The vifit in the medical clinic is from eight to nine in 
the morning. The affiftant, who is a graduate, and is 
ftyled fekundar-arzt, regularly follows the vifit, and, 
along with thofe ftudents who choofe to attend, vifits 
again in the evening. We have already remarked, that 
no one can take the degree of doCtor in medicine in the 
Univerfity of Vienna, without having attended this cli¬ 
nic for two years, and treated, under the eye of the pro- 
feffor, two patients within the half year preceding his 
offering himfelf for examination. This is abfoluteiy re¬ 
quired ; but we fliould fuppofe that each ftudent has the 
opportunity of treating five or fix patients at the leaft, 
each year of his attendance. The number of ftudents at 
thebeginning of Novemberlaft w'as about fixty, including 
foreigners. 
The duties of the cnndiduti aflijientes, or ftudents who 
have the care of patients, confilt in examining the par¬ 
ticular patient committed to their care, publicly on his 
admiftion, and again at every vifit; in writing out an 
hjjiuria morbi ; and in keeping a careful journal of the 
fymptoms and treatment. Thefe cafes are never written 
in a fhort and imperfeCI manner ; they are not made up 
of mere hafty notes of fymptoms, ftrung together without 
order: they contain a faithful and minute account of 
the ftate of the patient, at the laft morning vifit, at noon, 
and at evening, with obfervations, and even occafionally 
fhort arguments in regard to the diagnofis, prognofis, 
and treatment. Each report is dated both by the day of 
the month, and by the duration of the difeafe: they are 
written in Latin; are publicly read at the bed-fide ; and, 
on the difmiflion of the patient, are delivered to the pro- 
fefl'or. 
ProfefTor Von Hildenbrand’s work, entitled “ Initia 
Inftitutionum Clinicarum,' 1 ’ contains exaCt rules for the 
guidance of pupils in their examination of patients; in 
determining the nature, form, ftage, and degree, of dif¬ 
eafe ; in fixing the names, treatment, and prognofis ; and 
in writing the hiftory of the cafe. It has, perhaps, too 
much of a fcholaftic air to be all at oncerelifhed by com¬ 
mon Englifh readers ; but w'e have met with no work 
which could better ferve as a guide both for clinical ftu¬ 
dents and for clinical teachers. Nor did profeffor Von 
Hildenbrand diftinguifh himfelf more by the keen-eyed 
precifion with which he regarded the fymptoms, caules, 
treatment, and prognofis, of a difeafe, than by the pu¬ 
rity and fluency of the Latin diCiion in which his obfer¬ 
vations at the bed-fide, as well as his le&ures, were de- 
Vol.XIX. No. 1287. 
livered. The whole of the converfation betw'een the pro- 
feffor, affiftant, and candidate, is carried on in Latin. 
ProfefTor Von Hildenbrand feemed to us to fpeak Latin 
better than he did his own language ; and, though we 
are more favourable to the Italian and Scottilh than to 
the German manner of pronouncing Latin, we could 
fometimes have fancied ourfelves in ancient Rome, and 
that the perfon whom we heard was not a Galician of the 
nineteenth century, but Celfus himfelf. 
Hildenbrand might be regarded as an Agathseus Spar- 
tanus. He was known over all Germany, a country 
which is but too much overrun with hypothefes, and all 
the other offspring of a futile philofophy, as being one 
of the ableft fupporters of an ecleCIic fchool, in which 
the doCtrines of rational medicine were combined with 
thofe of empirical. That he was, in a word, a rational 
empiric, appeared at once from his clinical practice, from 
his prelections, and from his writings. To what are 
ftyled aCtive methods of treatment, Hildenbrand was not 
favourable ; and, having but fmall faith in the alleged 
power of drugs, he in general adopted and recommended 
fimple, mild, and indirect, means of relieving and affift- 
ing nature. It feemed to be the obferving fpirit of Hip¬ 
pocrates, enlightened by all that phyfiology and patho-- 
logy have difcovered fince the days of the father of me¬ 
dicine, which (hone forth in Hildenbrand, guiding him 
in his inquiries, and leading him to watch the moll mi¬ 
nute changes which nature herfelf effeCts in difeafes, but 
without blinding him to the agency of any really ufeful 
remedy. 
We can fcarcely conceive any improvement which 
could be made in the clinical education of phyficians at 
Vienna. The fyftem feems to us to be perfeCt. A ftage 
for dramatic and affeCted exhibitions, or for hazardous 
and ill-direded experiments, is the idea which is apt to 
rife in the mind upon mention of a clinic. But, in that 
of Vienna, both the phyfician and the pupils feemed to 
do every thing as they would have done in private prac¬ 
tice. It feemed as if the ftudents were led by Hildenbrand 
into the private houfes of his patients ; and as if the 
pupils were not learning a leffon in an hofpital, but be¬ 
ginning to pra&ife for themfelves, with the advantage of 
having an experienced and able practitioner with whom 
they might confult. The graduates of Vienna have not 
idled away the feafon for practical improvement. Placed 
in a fituation fuited as well for the communication of 
knowledge as for the elicitation of talent, they are 
fchooled in penetration, and in aClual habits of obferva- 
tion ; and bring into the chambers of the tick, fomething 
more than book-learning, fomething widely different 
from fafhionable accomplifhments. 
The Mufeum of MorbidAnatomy is attached to the me¬ 
dical clinic; and there is no part of the School of Vienna, 
which more ftrongly marks the fincere wifh of the Au- 
ftrian government to render the fyftem of medical edu¬ 
cation complete. A profeCtor, who aCts alfo as anatomi- 
cus forenfiH, is appointed to examine with care the dead 
bodies ot thofe who die in the hofpital, and to preferve 
fuch parts as may prove ufeful pathological preparations. 
He lives within the walls df the hofpital; and receives 
fuch a falary as may prevent him from withdrawing his 
attention from this office towards other purfuits. The 
Mufeum confifts of upwards of fix hundred valuable 
preparations, the greater number of which are preferved 
in alcohol. A Catalogue raij'omi'e has been publifhed by 
Dr. Biermayer, the prefent profeCtor, in which 586 of 
the preparations are deferibed, under the title of “ Mu- 
fasum Anatomico-Pathologicum Nofocomii Univerfitlis 
Vindobonenfis, i8if>.” 
The chair of the Surgical Clinic is filled by profeffor 
Vincent Kern, who gives daily leCtures upon the prac¬ 
tice of furgery in the operation-room adjoining to the 
wards. This clinic, indeed, owes its origin to profeffor 
Kern, and has exifted only fince 1806. The number of 
male patients admitted is eight, and of females fix. They 
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