The different aspects of family phthisis : in relation especially to heredity and life assurance / by Reginald E. Thompson.

  • Thompson, Reginald E. (Reginald Edward), 1834-1912.
Date:
1884
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The different aspects of family phthisis : in relation especially to heredity and life assurance / by Reginald E. Thompson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    2 FAMILY PHTHISIS. that the investigation of a patient's history is a pre¬ liminary retrospect which is made in all cases by the medical examiner, and is dependent in slight degree upon skilled examination. If it can be shown that certain features distinctively characterise special series of cases which differ from each other in the historical record of family implications, as given by the indi¬ vidual whose case is being investigated, then this historical retrospect becomes at once a material help towards the prospective estimate of the probable clinical features of the case, an estimate of value to the physician, as well as to the patient, and of prac¬ tical importance to the medical examiner concerned in life assurance. The great significance of the family tendency as regards consumption is apparent from the large number of cases in which a history is obtained show¬ ing that some other member of the family has been implicated in the disease ; and if we look to the re¬ sult of experience in regard to those conditions which favour the development of disease generally among families, we might be inclined to surmise that the causes for the family disposition of consumption would be sought among those four agencies which we know prevail for disease generally : one of them is contagion, familiar examples of which influence in