Some thoughts on the evolution and affinity of disease / by F. Le Gros Clark.

  • Clark, Frederick Le Gros, 1811-1892.
Date:
[1887?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Some thoughts on the evolution and affinity of disease / by F. Le Gros Clark. 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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    able; and the simplest, and, as I believe, the true explanation of the conflicting evidence on this point is afforded by the admission that there are many grades of the disease; the mildest of which is developed after a short interval, whilst the severer forms are more delayed; the intensity bearing a direct relation to the length of incubation. This suggestion is not inconsistent with the germ theory of disease; inasmuch as we know that time is an essential condition of the multiplication of germs, and possibly also of the augmentation of their virulence, and of that of ptomaines; whereas the relative susceptibility of the recipients would explain the early surrender in some instances, and the more protracted resistance in others, to the influence of the poison. Is it not a rule, subject to exceptions, that the severer the attack in most infectious maladies, the greater the security, after cure, from a second invasion of the same disease? I believe it to be so in sy]Dhilis, as in the exanthemata; -pro- bably also in carbuncle. Of the influence exercised by constitutional proneness to disease we have no lack of proof In some instances this pro- clivity is exhibited in relation to special diseases, such as catarrh, goiit, pneumonia, or bronchitis: in others it may be elicited by parasitic organisms whose spores are present in the atmosphere, awaiting a suitable soil in which to germinate; their activity being suspended until some impairment of vitality or other propitious conditions in their chance habitat favour their multiplication, or, it may be their assumption of a specific character. As regards non-specific poison, its introduction from an extraneous source is not essential to the production of a septic condition: it may be home-bred;—a fact which illus- trates, in a remarkable way, how importantly the intrinsic con- dition of a patient, whether natural or acquired, governs the consequence of exposure to any exciting cause of mischief Ho.spital surgeons are familiar with the class of patients amongst whom they may expect this pathogenic tendency. The dis- charge from a festering wound not only diffuses its poison throughout the system of the sufferer, but is qualified to impart its fatal virulence to others, when it is brought into contact with any trivial breach of surface. When a specific disease is imported by innoculatiou, its