The definition of acute respiratory illnesses in general practice.

The problems of classifying acute respiratory illnesses A well-defined clinical classification was essential for this survey if order was to be imposed on the numerous undifferentiated respiratory illnesses encountered in general practice to which a variety of labels are attached. The classification had to be designed so that it would demonstrate the activities of the various respiratory parasites in the different anatomical areas of the respiratory tract, and yet it had to be so simple and memorable that many different observers would record a particular syndrome in the same terms and remember clearly what they had to do throughout the two years. If the diagnostic categories were too wide distinctions between different illnesses would be missed; if they were too detailed natural syndromes would be artificially fragmented. No existing classification suited our requirements. That which was finally agreed (Miller, Table 1, this symposium) was based on the anato-