A text-book of dental pathology and therapeutics : for students and practitioners / by Henry H. Burchard ; revised by Otto E. Inglis.

  • Burchard, Henry H.
Date:
1905
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: A text-book of dental pathology and therapeutics : for students and practitioners / by Henry H. Burchard ; revised by Otto E. Inglis. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

    35/684 (page 31)
    the vital resistance normally implanted in an individual, and there- fore may to a certain extent be counted upon in a prognosis. Tem- perament is a predisposing cause probably only in so far as it intro- duces a natural general lack of resistance to disease, or irresistibly drives an individual into certain habits of life which may become the cause of a lessened resistance. Heredity. Certain diseases exhibit a predisposition to descend from parent to child or from grandparent through the unaffected son or daughter to a grandchild (in the latter case it is called atavistic hereditary transmission). The mode of transmission is in all probability the inheritance of a type of tissue, a tissue anatomy and physiology which permit the more ready action of the exciting causes of the disease. This tend- ency is called a diathesis—e. gr., hemorrhagic diathesis (htemophiHa), gouty diathesis, or tuberculous diathesis. Existing Disease. The presence of one disease may weaken the resistance of a part or the organism so that another disease may the more readily become implanted—e. ^r., measles accompanied by pneumonia. Previous Disease. At a period subsequent to disease the same disease may recur or another disease may be implanted—e. g., pneu- monia predisposes a lung to a recurrence of pneumonia or tubercu- losis may readily follow. Previous disease may confer immunity (which see). Extrinsic Predisposing Causes of Disease. Under this head are included all those conditions of external origin which lessen the resist- ance of an individual to the action of exciting causes. Excessive heat is weakening; cold and damp, by chilling the surface of the body, cause hyper£emia of internal parts, and thus predispose to such diseases as pneumonia, rheumatism, etc. Fatigue, unhealthy, cramping or sedentary occupations, continued loss of sleep from any cause, evil habits, continued hunger, etc., are other examples of debilitating influences which may be partly intrinsic. Local Predisposition. Alterations in the normal physiology of a part are apt to occur through certain causes liable to act upon it. Apart from this fact a part may be predisposed, by nature apparently, to permit the growth of organisms which do not grow well in other tissues. Local depres- sion of tissue vitality predisposes to the growth of organisms in the