Volume 1
The household physician : a family guide to the preservation of health and to the domestic treatment of ailments and disease, with chapters on food and drugs and first aid in accidents and injuries / by J. McGregor-Robertson ; with an introduction by John G. McKendrick.
- M'Gregor-Robertson, J. (Joseph), 1858-1925
- Date:
- 1899
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The household physician : a family guide to the preservation of health and to the domestic treatment of ailments and disease, with chapters on food and drugs and first aid in accidents and injuries / by J. McGregor-Robertson ; with an introduction by John G. McKendrick. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![TENDENCY TO DISEASE—DIATHESIS. Introduction.] consumption, by careful living, to keep it in abeyance; and liis success would doubtless in- fluence his offspring. If they, in their turn, were similarly careful a still diminished liabi- lity might be transmitted by them. By such a process as this, repeated through several gen- erations, the disease, which at first threatened extinction of the family, might finally be rooted out. (3.) A parent who may have inherited a robust enough constitution may himself acquire a dis- ease, syphilis, for example, which he then hands down to his child; or by drunkenness or other excesses he may transmit a constitution, if not actually diseased, at least very prone to disease. For instance, it has been found possible to pro- duce epilepsy in guinea-pigs by dividing a cer- tain nerve; and these guinea-pigs, affected by a disease artificially produced, have afterwards given birth to young which were subject to con- vulsive attacks. So it is that a man by alcoholic excess may be the cause of insanity, idiocy, weak-mindedness, or a tendency to these, in his offspring. A singular thing in reference to inheritance is, that a peculiarity of structure or character may skip one or more generations, and reappear in other succeeding generations. The father may have it, his children escape, but his grand- children manifest the same tendency. This is called atavism, which simply means a return to the state of the grandfather. Darwin has pointed out a rule, which he says may be ti’usted, that “ at whatever period of life ' a peculiarity first appears, it tends to reappear in the offspring at a corresponding age, though sometimes earlier.” To some extent this is true of hereditary disease, and might, if widely known, be taken advantage of, so that steps 1 might be taken, before the arrival of the ])ar- ticular age, to avert, if possible, the development of the suspected disease. It may be well to note a very curious fact, that a mother, who has previously borne off- spring, may afterwards have children, by a dif- ferent husband, hearing the characteristics of the first. Thus a widow who marries a second time may, by the second husband, have children strongly resembling the first. Finally there are other peculiarities which not infrequently “ run in families,” such as, the dis- position to be more strongly or disagreeably affected than usual by certain drugs, like mer- cury or opium, or less strongly than usual, the tendency to be influenced by the smell of fresh hay or the perfumes of certain flowers, the in- ability to take, without discomfort, certain kinds of food, such as mutton, or even simple medi- cines like magnesia, and the tendency to catch any and every disease that may be “ going,” or great freedom from and indisposition to disease. Thus, in estimatingcauses of disease, hereditary influences in their direct bearing, and in their bearing on personal peculiaidties, must not be overlooked. 6. Previous disease is another great predis- posing cause of disease. Of course previous disease may act as a safeguard against the re- turn of the same disease, thus small-pox and some similar affections give immunity from a second attack. On the other hand it is the rule, in very many cases, that once having the disease means always liable to it. Thus it is always the case that a person who has had an attack of quinsy, an inflammation of the tonsils, cannot be exposed for any time to cold or wet without great risk of its return. Erysipelas, boils, the kind of cold commonly called influenza, bron- chitis, inflammation of the kidneys, are very troublesome in this way. Further, one disease often produces a liability to another and quite different malady. One of the most common examples is acute rheumatism, the great danger of which is that it may lead to heart-disease, while it may also cause liability to St. Vitus’ dance. Again, many kinds of skin disease, bone diseases, throat affections, nervous complaints, diseases of the eye, ear, nose, &c., paralysis, epilepsy, and in fact almost any kind of disease, may be due to syphilis, contracted many years before, and may with difficulty be traced back to their true origin. In concluding this review of predisposing causes of disease it should be stated generally that the great predisposing cause is, putting it popularly, '■getting onds system get down.” Let a man tax his energies with overwork, let him get depi'essed in spirits by worry or anxiety, let him, for any time, neglect taking regular and proper diet in sufficient quantity, his natural vigour becomes, perhaps not apparently, but gradually diminished, and he loses some of his power of resisting disease, and so is liable to fall an easy prey to some affection which, in his ro- bust condition, passed him by. In connection with these predisposing causes of disease a word is frequently i;sed which it may be well here to explain. A person may, owing to previous disease or owing to inherited peculiarity, have a strong tendency to a parti- cular affection, in which case he is said to have a particular “ diathesis,” which simply means](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28124674_0001_0041.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
