THE PERSONAL FACTOR IN DISEASE.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 194, 11 May 1908, Page 9

THE PERSONAL FACTOR IN DISEASE.

! '".Sir Dyce' Duckworth's address' to ■ tha':!, .Faculty 'of Medicine in Paris merits detailed . : notice for two reasons, Says Reuter's corre>'spondent','- " first, because'as the: lccturer;r. .jiiniGelf'-anticipated in tho course'of 'his ro- . marks,- ; -it may give' risS to some lively '.-cnt-i-., c.i'sm - ill■■' this - important ; centre: of -'bacteno-. /logical resear!ch'; ! 'and,'y secondly, because it' . ,may; alford ; .a '.solid, grain of comfort' to many • sufferers -by-showing' that, the very ills under..' !which-they:groiii''render .-them- comparatively, .... .if;. not - entirely,"'imrtiurio froni .other nioro serious 1 troubles. ' It' should bo said' at-ones . that Sir Dyce carefully- guarded; himself against oven the suggestion of depreciating , tho value of bacteriological, wovk, with wlucil ■In? [declared 'himself, to. bo:'in. full sympathy, lbi.it the'purpose ot' his paper was to put -111 a pleii for the" older -doctrine, of diathesis or , the studv .'of'habits; of body,predisposing to■ certain- disea'ses,- which nowadays is too often! ' i neglectied • • iriv favour; of more -, tlew-fangled .theories. That he considered a dangerous >.. error; The'lessons of the clinical laboratory shquld' receive greater attention, and moro of such 'laboratories:were needed. 'Tho prin- ;' L 'cipal: study "of the' medical-profession should . be .many 1 from -his birth to his death, and all; this] habits and surrotinditigs;! In every diseaso ithey-.uvere' 'f'acb: to ' face', with the porsonal factor, ar.d 'a long clinical -'experience: had:strfengthen^d';his confidence in' the .'doctrine'.'! Tof-'diathesis. ' -The modern . investigator; occu-y, .piod'hiniself t-oo much with the seed arid too jlift-le-:livith r .tho'-soil, in which it was sown. Illustrating-this:contention, the lecturer said' -thaVmany persons were'.constitntionally pro- • ■ •"disposed- to', rheumatism- and ;gout, bul an ,important ■ characteristic _;in- such, cases was - ,;t-he the: tisSues ; "to the bacilli • oftuberculosis. s ', ,4'he:>.moro: rheumatic or: - gouty. a: : ;per'scui:;was:the:less pronounced : was his ■ tendency to; consumption. • Contrary to recent medical school,: of; Lyons- all :-his-i experience'' 1 confirmed the "an- ;V -. tagonism 1 of-'lthese - two conditions; an an- ■ tagonism which; if not absolute, was at least very: great. ' Tuberculosis in.' a ; rheumatic ■'■!: .siib'jectp and ■ still - more-in a gouty, subject, '!' : ■ :Was-iextremely rare,- 'and. when, it declared " it-s6lf .it •'made very slow- progress, was fre- ■' quently , arrested, and met .iritli rigorous resistance. ';-'Tho: lecturer corit-e-nded that, what ■ ,WaS transmitted-in the various diathetic con-. .dit-ions.'was assuredly the quality of tissue or isoi], .and not.tho infectious microbes. Hero thoy .had v tho "personal factor, which- the: "dQCtor must always consider."