The Lumleian lectures on certain points in the aetiology of disease : delivered before the Royal College of Physicians, 1892 : to which is added the Harveian oration, delivered before the College in 1893 : with a biographical notice of Harvey and an appendix of statistical tables / by P. H. Pye-Smith.

  • Pye-Smith, Philip Henry, 1839-1914.
Date:
1895
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Lumleian lectures on certain points in the aetiology of disease : delivered before the Royal College of Physicians, 1892 : to which is added the Harveian oration, delivered before the College in 1893 : with a biographical notice of Harvey and an appendix of statistical tables / by P. H. Pye-Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    Diseases not unnatural—The natural history of disease—External causes of disease, mechanical, chemical, &c.—Effect of cold, direct and indirect—Contagion—Invasion of bacteria and animal parasites—Origin of disease in persistence of occasional physiological states—Habit and tolerance—Vulnerability and resistance—Origin of acute from chronic diseases—Congenital and hereditary diseases—Diathesis and predisposition—Dege- nerative diseases—Overwork and modern life. Me. President and Gentlemen,—In asking your attention to certain points in the aetiology of disease, I would begin by submitting that the existence of disease in general needs no further explanation than the existence of life. Disease is as natural, as phy- siological, as health. No living thing is immortal, and life is a constant struggle against surrounding forces, in which each individual organism succumbs after a while, by handing on its life to its successor, when it has secured the victory of the race. Sic rerum summa novatur Semper et inter se mortales mutua vivunt; Augescunt alia© gentes, alise minuuntur, Inque brevi spatio mutantur saecla animantum, Et quasi cursores vital lampada tradunt. Pathology is only a chapter of physiology, which for convenience we have separated from the rest. We call that which brings us discomfort “ dis- ease,” and look upon disease as obtrusive, abnor- 1