The influence of heredity on disease : with special reference to tuberculosis, cancer and diseases of the nervous system a discussion / opened by Sir William S. Church, Sir William R. Gowers, Arthur Latham and E.F. Bashford.

Date:
1909
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The influence of heredity on disease : with special reference to tuberculosis, cancer and diseases of the nervous system a discussion / opened by Sir William S. Church, Sir William R. Gowers, Arthur Latham and E.F. Bashford. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    species of gall-producing insects may cause galls with different and easily recognized peculiarities on the same leaf. Nevertheless the form and structure of the gall appear to depend rather on the constitution of the protoplasm affected than on the stimulus afforded by the presence of the insect. Is it unreasonable, when we see the wonderful action of these minute embryos—probably through some ferment secreted by them—on vegetable tissues, to suppose that some similar process may take place in cancer ?—some innate error of metabolism, altering or forming some enzyme within us and causing a proliferation of cell-growth, its activity being called forth by some accidental irritation ? The fact that mice in whom an inoculated tumour has been absorbed acquire immunity from further inoculation with tumour tissue appears to support this view, as does also the fact that the injection of normal mouse blood or of mouse embryo skin-emulsion also confers on mice a certain measure of immunity from cancer inoculation. There is no class of disease in which the conviction that they are hereditary is more firmly fixed both among the lay public and the pro- fession than many forms of diseases of the nervous system. To say that epilepsy, insanity, hysteria, and other neuroses are not inherited, but depend on the inheritance of a constitutional peculiarity, originating as a germinal variation which may manifest itself in different ways, appears to me to be a distinction without a difference. Further research and carefully recorded family histories are wanted before we can tell how far these various neuroses maybe interchangeable or what maybe the condition which determines the presence of any particular group of nervous sym- ptoms. The epileptiform attacks in guinea-pigs whose nervous system has been traumatically injured have undoubtedly been transmitted to their descendants, and Professor Weismann, whilst admitting this, suggests various explanations which time will not permit me to enter on. There must, I think, be some present who can tell us if epilepsy or any other neurosis has been recorded as occurring with undue fre- quency in the offspring of those who have suffered from epilepsy induced by lead or other forms of poisoning. Dr. Ormerod, in his recent Harveian Oration, has most ably pointed out how vast a field is open for the study of inherited peculiarities in diseases of the nervous system, therefore I will not take up your time by attempting to go over ground which he has so fully covered. I am afraid that I have inadequately and very imperfectly placed before you the subject-matter for our discussion, and I now leave it to those who are better qualified than myself to carry it on. It is only by the accumulation of data, thoroughly sifted and openly discussed,