Eco viewed the task of semiology as important and radical. This approach to text is influenced by the semiology of Ferdinand de Saussure. Symptomatology (also called semiology) is a branch of medicine dealing with symptoms. Also called semiotic studies, or semiology (in the Saussurean tradition). Barthes in his work, "Elements of Semiology" (1967), advanced the concept of the "metalanguage". "We discovered semiology and it was very important to us," says Bernard.