The first medical report of the Hospital for Consumption and Diseases of the Chest, presented to the Committee of Management, by the physicians of the institution.

  • Brompton Hospital
Date:
1849
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The first medical report of the Hospital for Consumption and Diseases of the Chest, presented to the Committee of Management, by the physicians of the institution. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    18/42 (page 18)
    ^ Influence of Hereditary Predisposition. pursuits which, it may be said, almost independently of these conditions, ex ercise a directly injurious influence on the health of those engaged in them—par ticularly those which compel persons to work in close, ill-ventilated, and over heated rooms, sitting for many hours each day in a posture unfavourable t< the free action of the muscles of respiration, breathing an impure atmosphere and restricted from taking exercise in the open air. These are the circum stances which appear to render so painfully prominent the class of Clerks. Milliners, Printers, Tailors, in-door Servants, &c. : persons thus occupied soon feel the effects of these injurious influences, and if they have any tendency to tubercular disease, it rarely fails to develope itself. Several striking instances presented themselves of young men and women from the country, previously in good health, who soon fell victims to Phthisis under these circumstances. It is greatly to be desired that the employers of such persons should endeavour to obviate these evils, by not requiring too long service, by allowing time for exercise in the open air, and taking care°that the offices m which the employments are carried on are properly warmed and ventilated. 5th.—Hereditary Predisposition. General observation and experience having led to the conclusion that certain diseases are transmitted from the parent to the child, with not less certainty than many physical characters, not inconsistent with health, it seems desirable on this occasion to exhibit the extent and degree of this power of trans¬ mission rather than to question its existence. Disease may or may not be transmitted to the offspring of a diseased parent; or, if transmitted, may not be developed. Counteracting circumstances, chiefly those connected with the protection and preservation of health, may suffice to prevent results which, m their absence, would have occurred. Hence one or more only of the several children of the same individuals may exhibit the diseases of the parents. The other children, though not apparently diseased, may, on be¬ coming parents, have still the power of transmitting to their offspring the elements of disease, which wait but an occasion, or an exciting cause for their development. Thus we find a diseased parent in one generation having an apparently healthy offspring, and in the next generation an apparently healthy parent with a diseased offspring. This class of facts is of the greatest import¬ ance in all inquiries like the present, since conclusions founded on the presence or absence of disease in the parents only, afford too limited an idea of the influence of predisposition. The effect upon the offspring, of disease in the