Copy 1, Volume 1

Elements of pathological anatomy / By Samuel D. Gross.

  • Gross, Samuel D. (Samuel David), 1805-1884.
Date:
1839
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Elements of pathological anatomy / By Samuel D. Gross. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    31/540 (page 23)
    CHAP. I.] DISEASE: WHAT IS IT? 28 Having made these desultory remarks, we may now pro- ceed a step further, and inquire what constitutes disease ; for every body knows what is meant by health. Disease may be defined to be a departure from the sound state, whether this departure consist simply in a derangement of function or structure. So long as the solid and fluid mate- rials of the body act in concert, there cannot, of course, be any lesion; health, in all its vigor and perfection, must be the result; but when the blood and the tissues are arrayed, as it were, against each other, the harmony of the system is interrupted, unnatural action is set up, or, in other words, there is disease. This deranged action, it need scarcely be stated, may be limited, or it may involve a considerable num- ber of organs and tissues at the same time. Of the essence of disease, very little is known; indeed, nothing at all; nor can the utmost ingenuity hope to re- move the veil which still envelopes the subject, until the physiology and pathology of the muscular and nervous systems shall be better understood. 'The proximate cause of morbid action, and the immediate cause of life in the healthy state, are as inscrutable to the human mind as the cause of gravitation, of attraction, and repulsion. All we can boast of is, that we know something of their effects; beyond this, it is extremely problematical whether we shall ever be able to penetrate. With this, indeed, every philosophical inquirer after truth should be contented, remembering that the secrets of nature are not easily detected, and that to God alone belongs the knowledge of the intrinsic property of things. It has been already intimated, that diseases are functional or organic. As it is of the latter class that we shall more par- ticularly treat in the following pages, it will be proper that we should speak of them somewhat at length. Before pro- ceeding further, however, it behoves me to explain what I comprehend by the term organic. By pathological anato- mists, the word is generally employed to denote some perma- nent change in the textures of an organ; but, in the sense that I would use it, I would not only include under it all such lesions, but also every temporary alteration which the tissues experience when in a state of disease. The term organic will then have a wider latitude; and, as expressing the same thing, we shall often have occasion to use the word. structure. If this acception be adopted, it may perhaps be