Page 4 - Diagnosis_Reaver

ure.

Obviously, this young man knew “ what
was the matter” with him. He knew how he
was suffering and in what condition his
nerves were. What he meant was that he
felt he would have a reliable diagnosis if he
consulted a nerve specialist. This attitude is
typical of almost all sick people who have
been trying to get well with medical
methods. It was not enough that I had found
the cause of his trouble. It was not enough
that I had shown him how his nervousness
was produced by pressures on nerves in his
spine. It was not enough that I had ex­
plained how these pressures were coming
from misplacements in the articulations of
his spine, and how my correction of those
misplacements would free his nerves of the
pressures on them thereby removing the
cause of his nervousness. He wanted a
name given to his trouble. He wanted a
diagnosis. He wanted a label or tag to his
condition.

Diagnosis, according to Webster’s Dic­
tionary, is “ the art or act of recognizing the
presence of disease from its signs or symp­
toms and deciding as to its character; also
the decision arrived at.’’ According to
Dorland’s Medical Dictionary diagnosis is
the “ art of distinguishing one disease from
another. The determination of the nature of
a case of disease.” It is quite evident that
diagnosis is the corner-stone of medical
treatment. A medical man must give a
name to your condition before he can give
you drugs for it. Naming a disease is a