Hereditary hypoplasia in man, due to degeneracy : the underlying basis of those cases having a hereditary origin, and the relation of this underlying cause to the functional neuroses, tuberculosis, infections and immunity / Charles P. Noble.

  • Noble, Charles P. (Charles Percy), 1863-1935.
Date:
1909
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Hereditary hypoplasia in man, due to degeneracy : the underlying basis of those cases having a hereditary origin, and the relation of this underlying cause to the functional neuroses, tuberculosis, infections and immunity / Charles P. Noble. 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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    usually to acute disease, less often to long-acting causes, and rarely to traumatism, will develop neurasthenia; hence operation in these cases will cure only the local or reflex symptoms, even in patients primarily normal, and will not influence for good, or will make worse, those having hypoplasia from arrested development. My work as a gynecologist has brought me in relation more particularly with hysteria, neurasthenia and reflex neuroses. It is probable that such conditions as epi- lepsy, catalepsy, hysteria, insanity, exophthalmic goiter, etc., have the same basis in degeneracy as those condi- tions already considered. As showing the relation between the two groups of cases already studied, it was two gynecologists, Ede- bohls and myself, who worked out these facts. It has long been observed—and this idea was especially elab- orated by Harris—that those having loose kidneys have a peculiar body form; this body form is the same as that which has been discussed in connection with de- layed puberty and is due to general hypoplasia. It is the form of the child—the neuter. Harris failed to recognize the underlying cause of this body form. Glen- ard long ago recognized that dropped stomach and dropped intestines were associated in certain cases with dropped kidneys, and as a result of his teachings, which represent a half-truth, there came confusion in the study of nephroptosis, because the underlying cause of each was not understood. His teaching failed to take into consideration the fact that certain cases are devel- opmental in origin and that others are acquired; hence the confusion. This group of visceral ptoses, which includes stomach and intestines, the kidneys and the liver and the spleen and the uterus, when not acquired, are all due to devel- opmental causes—to a primary defect in the ovum. But this is not all, because they have general hypoplasia; the liver cells and the cells of the gastric and of the intestinal glands and of the pancreas all feel the influ- ence of the primary defect in the ovum. In addition, the nervous system suffers the consequences of this pri- mary defect, and so we have so-called nervous indiges- tion, which is merely the outcome of general hypo- plasia, when it is not reflex in origin. It has been known for centuries that the consumptive has a peculiar body form, speaking broadly; he or she is not erect;