A critical inquiry into the pathology of scrofula. In which the origin of that disease is accounted for on new principles; and a new and much improved method is recommended and explained for the treatment of it / [George Henning].

Henning, George.

Date:: 1815

Credit: A critical inquiry into the pathology of scrofula. In which the origin of that disease is accounted for on new principles; and a new and much improved method is recommended and explained for the treatment of it / [George Henning]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$caution, “eo autem terribilius est hoc malum, quod a parentibus in prolem sepe transit ; et ha- reditate quam cepit, haud facile se privari sinit.” ® So that, according to the former of these writers, the disease is always hereditary; and to the latter of them is often so; but both agree, that when thus derived it is seldom dispossessed. These however were writers of the former cen- tury, but the following passage, cited from a re- spectable work published during the present, shews how far their opinions are from being ob- solete. This author however does not leave us to despair, for he encourages us to expect that by a dietetical method, continued during the first four years of childhood, scrofula may be postponed, or | prevented through life. «Ifa child,” he observes, “is born of scrofulous parents, | would strongly recommend that it be entirely nourished from the breast of a healthy nurse for at least a year ; after this the diet should consist of milk and farimaceous vegetables: by a perseverance in this diet for three years, I have imagined that the threatened scrofulous appear- ances have certainly been postponed, if not alto- gether prevented ; and that too, in some instances, . where we might presume the predisposition to such disease was very strong, from the operation of hereditary influence.”7 6. Mon. et Prec. Medica Caput xv. 7. Pemberton on the Diseases of the Abdominal Viscera ; p20]. Ed. 2. 1807. \$