Volume 1

The diseases of infants and children / by J.P. Crozer Griffith and A. Graeme Mitchell.

  • John Price Crozer Griffith
Date:
1927
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The diseases of infants and children / by J.P. Crozer Griffith and A. Graeme Mitchell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    21/894 page 1
    THE DISEASES OF CHILDREN DIVISION I GENERAL SUBJECTS CHAPTER I ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY THE DIVISIONS OF LIFE For the purpose of study human life is usually sub-divided into sev¬ eral stages. These are, of course, somewhat arbitrary divisions, and vary considerably with different writers. As convenient an arrangement as any is that which separates life into Intra-uterine, or fetal life; Infancy, including the New-Born as a sub-division; Childhood, early and later; Youth or adolescence, with Puberty as the initial period of this stage; Adult life, and its sub-division, Old Age. Intra=uterine Life.—Although apparently closely resembling a new¬ born child, the fetus is in reality so different that it is not capable of in¬ dependent existence. Many of its organs, though perfect, are not yet active. Circulation is not in the complete state which it will later assume. Respiration and digestion are entirely in abeyance, oxygen and nutriment being obtained through the maternal blood. , Being so closely dependent upon the mother for its life, it follows that the condition of her health and her methods of living cannot fail to exert a great influence upon the health of the fetus, and, indeed, upon the whole later existence of the child. The fetus may also directly inherit a feeble constitution from a deli¬ cate father or mother, irrespective of the production of debility by the preventable causes mentioned. Actual disease may be transmitted from mother to fetus. This is occasionally true of such infectious dis¬ orders as measles, whooping-cough, typhoid fever, malaria, tuberculosis and the like, and very frequently of syphilis. The tendency to rheuma¬ tism or to gout is directly transmitted, as are certain nervous maladies, although the latter are oftener the result of other nervous conditions in the parents, or of imperfect hygiene of the nervous system of the mother while pregnant. There are, besides, a variety of accidents which may happen to the fetus in utero, such as fractures, dislocations, amputations and the like. Various diseases may occur, or anomalies of development arise, producing monsters or lesser degrees of malformations, the reason for the occur¬ rence of which is little understood so far as any preventive measures are concerned. Other characteristics and disorders of this period are fully treated of in works upon obstetrics and diseases of the embryo and fetus.
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