Preventable Diseases. Woods Hutchinson
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Woods Hutchinson
Preventable Diseases
Published by Good Press, 2019
EAN 4064066240905
Table of Contents
THE BODY-REPUBLIC AND ITS DEFENSE
OUR LEGACY OF HEALTH: THE POWER OF HEREDITY IN THE PREVENTION OF DISEASE
THE PHYSIOGNOMY OF DISEASE: WHAT A DOCTOR CAN TELL FROM APPEARANCES
ADENOIDS, OR MOUTH-BREATHING: THEIR CAUSE AND THEIR CONSEQUENCES
TUBERCULOSIS, A SCOTCHED SNAKE
TUBERCULOSIS, A SCOTCHED SNAKE
THE NATURAL HISTORY OF TYPHOID FEVER
THE HERODS OF OUR DAY: SCARLET FEVER, MEASLES, AND WHOOPING-COUGH
APPENDICITIS, OR NATURE'S REMNANT SALE
MALARIA: THE PESTILENCE THAT WALKETH IN DARKNESS; THE GREATEST FOE OF THE PIONEER
RHEUMATISM: WHAT IT IS, AND PARTICULARLY WHAT IT ISN'T
GERM-FOES THAT FOLLOW THE KNIFE, OR DEATH UNDER THE FINGER-NAIL
CANCER, OR TREASON IN THE BODY-STATE
HEADACHE: THE MOST USEFUL PAIN IN THE WORLD
MENTAL INFLUENCE IN DISEASE, OR HOW THE MIND AFFECTS THE BODY
CHAPTER I
THE BODY-REPUBLIC AND ITS DEFENSE
The human body as a mechanism is far from perfect. It can be beaten or surpassed at almost every point by some product of the machine-shop or some animal. It does almost nothing perfectly or with absolute precision. As Huxley most unexpectedly remarked a score of years ago, "If a manufacturer of optical instruments were to hand us for laboratory use an instrument so full of defects and imperfections as the human eye, we should promptly decline to accept it and return it to him. But," as he went on to say, "while the eye is inaccurate as a microscope, imperfect as a telescope, crude as a photographic camera, it is all of these in one." In other words, like the body, while it does nothing accurately and perfectly, it does a dozen different things well enough for practical purposes. It has the crowning merit, which overbalances all these minor defects, of being able to adapt itself to almost every conceivable change of circumstances.
This is the keynote of the surviving power of the human species. It is not enough that the body should be prepared to do good work under ordinary conditions, but it must be capable, if needs be, of meeting extraordinary ones. It is not enough for the body to be able to take care of itself, and preserve a fair degree of efficiency in