Observations on the mortality and physical management of children / by John Roberton.

Date:
1827
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the mortality and physical management of children / by John Roberton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    308/340 (page 288)
    The origin of hereditary predisposition to dis- ease is a subject of singular obscurity. Yet we cannot doubt (to use the words of Dr. Pritchard when speaking of the origin of varieties of form and colour) “ that every phenomenon of [this kind] has its determinate cause, and that each peculiar circumstance in the result is determined by a corresponding modification in the antecedents.” I can do little more now than remark that climate would seem to be a powerful agent in the produc- tion of new varieties of conformation which dispose to disease, aided of course by modes of life and a great variety of moral circumstances. Thus the inhabitants of warm climates are nearly exempt from scrofula; but on removing to the temperate latitudes, they propagate a highly scrofulous race. On the other hand, the Elephan- tiasis, an hereditary disease, is peculiar to warm climates. In various districts of our own country, we find certain diseases hereditary, which we are not warranted in attributing solely to intermar- riages into diseased families. In the cold and moist climate of the West of Scotland for example, various forms of scrofula are extremely prevalent. Goitre and idiotism are also found in many in regard totlie management of the health, must he obvious ; though, perhaps, in their case, the stoicism of the poet is not inapplicable.— “ Where ignorance is bliss, ’lis folly to be wise.”