Notes on practice of medicine taken by S. P. Kerns from the lectures of J. M. DaCosta, M.D., L.L.D. Emeritus Professor of Practice of Medicine in the Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia Pa.

These notebooks belonged to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, doctor Samuel Proctor Kerns and contain notes on lectures given by Jacob M. Da Costa at Jefferson Medical College from 1889 to 1891 on diseases of the nervous, circulatory, and respiratory systems.

These two volumes contain the lecture notes of Samuel Proctor Kerns, a student at Jefferson Medical College. It appears the notes have been recopied. Both volumes contain notes on the lectures of Professor Jacob M. Da Costa. The first volume records lectures given during the 1889-1890 term on diseases of the nervous system. The second volume records lectures given from December 5, 1890, to February 6, 1891, on diseases of the blood, blood-vessels, respiratory system, and the chest.

The sections on each disease often contain subsections on causes, symptoms, prognosis, diagnosis, differential diagnosis, and treatment. The descriptions are written in a way that is easy for someone unfamiliar with medicine to understand. They provide information on the perception and treatment of diseases common during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

The diseases covered in the first volume include deranged nutrition, deranged secretion, headache, sick headache, vertigo, congestion of the brain, cerebral anaemia, meningitis, apoplexy, cerebral embolism, acute softening of the brain, neurasthenia, abscess of the brain, tumor of the brain, aphasia, cerebral syphilis, chronic hydrocephalus, sunstroke, heat exhaustion, delirium tremens, congestion of the spinal cord, spinal meningitis, myelitis, acute poliomyelitis, locomotor ataxia, lateral sclerosis, multiple sclerosis, shaking palsy, paralysis, wasting palsy, multiple neuritis also known as alcoholic paralysis, chorea, epilepsy, hysteria, and neuralgia.

The diseases covered in the second volume include diphtheria, plethora, anaemia, chlorosis, leukaemia, lymphoma, myxoedema, scurvy, purpura, haemophilia, inflammation of arteries, atheroma, phlebitis, laryngitis, croup, whooping cough, palpation, diminished fremitus, feeble respiration, absent breathing, prolonged expiration, harsh respiration, bronchial murmurs, cavity sounds, rales, friction sounds, bronchitis, asthma, emphysema, congestion of the lungs, hemorrhage from the lungs, oedema of the lungs, pneumonia, gangrene of the lung, and consumption.

A clipping of an advertisement for a stomach remedy has been laid in the second volume. It reads, “Circular of Keith’s Elixir Dyspepsia Comp. The Best Remedy Known Giving Doses and Mode of Administration and Testimonials in Brief.” More information about the product is printed on the reverse.