Pathogenicity

“ It is New Conceptions of Etiology. proper to point out here how intimately a pathology thus regenerated modified current conceptions of disease, in the linking of disease to oscillations of health, and the regarding many diseases as modifications of the normal set up by the impingement of external causes; not a few of which indeed may be generated within the body itself—“autogenetic poisoning.” The appreciation of such modifications, and of the working of such causes, has been facilitated greatly by the light thrown upon normal processes by advances in physiology ”

“ Undoubtedly one of the most important steps which medicine has made in its development, is the recognition of the difference between disease itself and those symptoms which may be caused as the result of such disease. We shall find that in most, if not in all, of the older writers on medicine, the treatment of the physician was directed towards the alleviation of those prominent symptoms, which, then not so much looked upon as symptoms, were only recognized as the main cause of the attack. ”

“ It is particularly apt to occur in persons whose health is depressed by mental worries, or by such troubles as chronic disease of the kidneys or blood-vessels, or by diabetes. The attack ends in mortification of the affected tissue, and, after much suffering, the core or mortified part slowly comes away. The modern treatment consists in cutting into the inflamed area, scraping out the germ-laden core at the earliest possible moment, and applying germicides. ”

“ This truth, that all pathologico-histological changes in the tissues of the body are degenerative in character, and, whether caused by a parasite, a poison, or some unknown influence, are first brought about by or through a changed innervation, is one that is being accepted very largely by the best men in the profession, and the accumulation of facts is increasing rapidly, and the acceptance of this great truth will prove to be little short of revolutionary in its influence on the treatment of the disease. ”

“ Permeating the whole organism, they give rise to such diseases as fever, Sarvangaroga, etc. which invade the entire system. The aggravated and expanded humours, thus firmly ensconced in the different parts of the body, exhibit the premonitory symptoms of diseases which will be fully dealt with under their respective heads. The manifestation of these premonitory symptoms should be considered as the fourth occasion for medical treatment.
Disease-Its Development:—Now we shall deal with the full development or manifestation of a disease. ”

“ The Common Fundamental Cause in the Nature of Diseases All the phases of the process of development of the medical science, including those of the earliest periods of civilization, have in their way of understanding the causal nature of diseases that one thing in common that the diseases, owing to external causes, enter into the human body and thus, by force of a necessary or at least unavoidable law, disturb it in its existence, cause it pain and at last destroy it. ”

“ The very notion of Diagnosis in our modern sense of the word depends upon Morbid Anatomy. The older physicians seldom attempted to determine the seat of an ailment. [8] Disease was looked upon not as a condition depending upon disordered physiological functions, but as something external, attacking a previously healthy person, disturbing, and, if not expelled by art, finally destroying him; while any structural changes which were found after death were regarded rather as the effects than the causes of the symptoms during life. ”

“ What is the cause of disease? The question does not apply to any one particular form of disease or class of diseases, but to disease generally, as a concrete term meaning any disorder which may manifest itself by individual disturbances in the body; for such disturbance is but a variation in quantity or quality of one general disturbance, a variation in the mechanism that controls the work of keeping the existing cells in proper condition and replacing those cells which are constantly being destroyed. It is a variation in the process of regeneration, which we term life. ”

“ Morbid variations of structure and function present three leading phases of action, the acute, chronic, and diathetic. The primary causes of each are the same, a faulty personal hygiene and an unfavorable environment, but a derivative cause very generally predominates in the heritage of a defect or taint in the blood. In acute variations the struggle between the tendency to death and the tendency to reversion is usually short and severe, but decisive. The contending forces are often so nearly equal that a very little will turn the scale one way or the other. ”

“ True, there are functional disorders and others which are toxic or parasitic; but it is the object of the study of Morbid Anatomy to limit, and, as nearly as may be, to abolish the former group by tracing disordered functions to structural changes or to poisonous or parasitic influences. We may measure the progress of medical science during the present century by the fact that Fever, Dropsy, Paralysis and Apoplexy are for us no longer diseases but only symptoms which leave us unsatisfied till we have traced them to their origin. ”

“ Disease may be defined as an abnormal condition of the human body, and since there is no one condition of the human body which can be satisfactorily described as normal, there is, therefore, no exact definition of disease. ”

“ It is the marvel of the century for curing such diseases as—Rheumatism, Bright's Disease, Blood Poisoning, Heart Trouble, Dropsy, Catarrh and Throat Affections, Liver, Kidney and Bladder Ailments, Stomach and Female Disorders, La Grippe, Malarial Fever, Nervous Prostration and General Debility as thousands testify, and as no one, answering this, writing for a package, will deny after using. ”

“ Diseases—how slowly we accept their teaching—how blind we are to their warning voice! The word itself is not understood. The term disease is popularly applied only to the most serious forms, such as have been named, when it is properly applicable to any condition other than the normal condition of the body—perfect ease. Acidity, heartburn, flatulence, slight pains in the head, uneasy sensations of whatever sort—so little regarded until too late—are they not dis-ease? ”

“ If Pathology be to disease what Physiology is to health, it appears reasonable to conclude, that in any given structure or organ, the laws of the former will be as fixed and significant as those of the latter; and that the peculiar characters of any structure or organ may be as certainly recognized in the phenomena of disease as in the phenomena of health. ”

“ The light that has lately been thrown on chronic sources of focal infection has cleared up many of the mysteries surrounding the causation of certain obscure affections—chronic rheumatism, arthritis deformans, certain forms of anemia, goitre, chronic heart and kidney troubles, diabetes, ulcer of the stomach, duodenum, etc., and other forms of chronic disease, especially those that have proved resistant to known methods of treatment. ”

“ Disease gradually acquaints him with the fact that there are within him organs and functions corresponding to the objects and forces in the world without,—servitors in fact which must not be ignored under penalty of transforming them into foes to his well-being. Disease makes him aware that by ignoring the claims of his inner relations he has been converting his very food, juices and gases into insidious and formidable poisons, which perforce he absorbs into his blood and tissues and circulates throughout his entire system. ”

“ Why is the body incapable of being affected more than once by certain morbid poisons; and whence comes the striking and curious differences of susceptibility to infection in different individuals at the same time, and of the same individual at different times? ”

“ It has been judiciously remarked that pathological facts, or, to speak in common language, diseases in their different forms and degrees afford in the case of physiological investigation the most valuable equivalent to experimentation properly so called; inasmuch as they often exhibit to us a definite disturbance in some one organ or organic function, the remaining organs and functions being, in the first instance at least, unaffected. ”

“ The morbific matter, state or condition, call it which you will, which has caused the disease, or generated the sickly state into which the patient has lapsed, is counteracted and neutralized by the action of the drug which, in a healthy person, would produce symptoms similar to, but not identical with, those which are excited by the disease. ”

“ In studying the cause of organic disease, the first thing to consider is the organ itself. A knowledge of its structure and function will indicate what diseases it is liable to have—what the character of the disease must be. ”

“ Most students of the condition believe that they arise from the field of operation, and may be caused by infection of the tissues, by injury to the tissues, or by the motion of the part of the body operated upon. ”

“ They call that a disease where the whole body is corrupted; they call that sickness where a disease is attended with a weakness, and that a defect where the parts of the body are not well compacted together; from whence it follows that the members are misshapen, crooked, and deformed. So that these two, a disease and sickness, proceed from a violent concussion and perturbation of the health of the whole body; but a defect discovers itself even when the body is in perfect health. But a disease of the mind is distinguishable only in thought from a sickness. ”

“ The degeneration is usually associated with severe wasting diseases, in the human being with tuberculosis, syphilis, malignant tumors, malarial infection, dysentery, leukæmia, and chronic suppuration or ulceration, especially of the bones. ”

“ Man alone is able to produce a true pathogenesis by revealing the most evanescent as well as the most characteristic and most permanent symptoms, or lesions of sensation. On plants and animals we can only perceive disordered functions, disorganizations of tissues, or acute pains as manifested by gestures or cries; but the truly dynamic action can only be properly perceived and described by man.
The veterinary homœopathist does very well in selecting his remedy by the human pathogenesis. ”

“ Chronic diseases of a functional nature develop when an otherwise healthy organism becomes saturated and clogged with food and drug poisons to such an extent that these encumbrances interfere with the free circuation of the blood and nerve currents, and with the normal functions of the cells, organs and tissues of the body. ”

“ If the injury be of an infectious character, that is, produced by bacteria, these may be present in the part and continue to exert injury by the poisonous substances which they produce, or if the injury has been produced by the action of some other sort of poison, this may be present in concentrated form, or the injury may have been the result of the presence of a foreign body in the part. ”

“ When we group diseases according to causation, we find that many are due to excesses—excesses in food, in drink, in drugs, in exercise, in indolence, in work, in rest, in play. Sometimes the body labors under adverse influences which we do not understand. Sometimes the organism is handicapped from the start by inherited defects. Sometimes subtle poisons which the body itself forms are not properly disposed of, and the organism suffers. ”

“ Not a few, however, of their most mortal maladies are the production of contagion, infection, and other like causes, all exercising a general tendency to disease difficult to define and impossible to avoid. ”

“ For not only are many of the diseases which flesh is heir to, obscure in their causes, difficultly distinguishable by their symptoms, and altogether mysterious in their effect upon the system, but constitutions may be as different as tempers, and their varieties may be as many and as great as those of the human countenance. ”

“ Occupation. As this often throws light upon the pathologic condition present in the body, the trade or occupation should be ascertained and stated in the protocol. When no direct information is available a judgment concerning it may be made on the basis of certain conditions, occupation or industrial diseases found in the body (anthracosis, argyrosis, siderosis, silicosis, chalicosis, lead-poisoning, chronic phosphorus poisoning, nitrobenzol and other forms of poisoning, localized muscle-hypertrophy or atrophy, callus, etc.) ”

“ There are, for example, many diseases of the digestive, nutritive, and excretory systems, of the heart and arteries, of the brain and nerves, and various less clearly localized abnormal conditions, that owe their origin to inherent defects of the organism, or to various indiscretions of food or drink, to unhygienic surroundings, to material injuries, or to other forms of environmental stress quite dissociated from the action of bacteria. ”

“ When, however, through either organic disease or functional inactivity, they fail to carry off their proportion of the waste-products of the body, some of these products must either be eliminated through other organs, where they cause irritation and disease, or be retained within the body, where they act as poisons. ”

“ To effect this we must study the human being in all relations of life, must know the constitution and class of subjects in which the disease is most apt to manifest itself, understand the chemico-physiologic actions going on in the system, before and during the existence of the disease, and by a process of synthesis and deduction understand what is wrong and endeavor to correct it. ”