Signs and Semiotics
The art of interpreting clinical signs was originally called semiotics (a term now used for the study of sign communication in general) in English. This term, then written semeiotics (derived from the Greek adjective σημειοτικός: semeiotikos, "to do with signs"), was first used in English in 1670 by Henry Stubbes (1631–1676), to denote the branch of medical science relating to the interpretation of signs:
- …nor is there any thing to be relied upon in Physick, but an exact knowledge of medicinal phisiology (founded on observation, not principles), semeiotics, method of curing, and tried (not excogitated, not commanding) medicines…
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Famous quotes containing the word signs:
“So saying, her rash hand in evil hour
Forth-reaching to the Fruit, she plucked, she eat.
Earth felt the wound, and Nature from her seat,
Sighing through all her works, gave signs of woe
That all was lost.”
—John Milton (1608–1674)