Some thoughts on the evolution and affinity of disease / by F. Le Gros Clark.

  • Frederick le Gros Clark
Date:
[1887?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Some thoughts on the evolution and affinity of disease / by F. Le Gros Clark. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    be termed accidental, or such as arc inherited or acquired, are very influential in modifying the characteristics of disease. This is exemplified in various circumstances and in many ways: and there is nothing extravagant in the supposition that a simple inflammatory product may be thereby converted into a specialised form of disease; and again, that this specialised form should, in course of time, assiime a specific type,—more permanent in character because it has reached its maximum development in that particular direction. In such evolution time is an essential ingredient; as are likewise the character of the infect- ing matter and the susceptibility of the recipient; both of which are materially governed by inherited or acquired diathesis. This is exemplified in the circumstance that two individuals, deriving syphilis from the same source, are not necessarily affected to the same degree, or even in the same way. The study of ordinary septic inflammation from decomposing or diseased animal matter affords an analagous illustration; the susceptibility of the recipient greatly influences the result. Here likewise there is a period of incubation (if it may be so termed) before the zymotic action commences. In these in- stances the interval is short compared yvith. that in the case of most specific poisons, perhaps because the affinity between the poison and the circulating fluids is closer in those which ai-e non- specific. But the period of incubation in what are teiined specific diseases is not such as to admit of their being classified under one general law. It is true that some of the exanthemata are approximately regular as regards the interval between exposure to infection and the manifestation of the disease; but they differ in this respect from one another. Yet in others, and pro- bably also in s}^hilis, there seems to be a direct ratio between the virulence of the poison, as manifested by its effects, and the length of time it abides in the system before it is developed. Certainly a chancroid, or soft sore, has a shorter period of incu- bation than a chancre; and it is a question worthy of further investigation, whether there is not a more or less regular asso- ciation between the length of incubation and the subsequent severity of the constitutional affection. That the interval between innoculation Avith syphilis and the development of the disease varies very much in different instances is unquestion-
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