484 PEDIATRICS 



all sorts of fantastic representations (influence of milk secretion, 

 eruption of teeth, occurrence of worms), have been taken as ex- 

 planations. 



3. The more rapid course of the disease, terminating sometimes 

 with a fatal ending, sometimes with recovery, but mostly with 

 atypic and uncomplicated course because occurring in a healthy 

 organism. (The diseases which occur in earliest infancy, in which 

 a rapid distribution of the disease-process to other organs is 

 observed as a result of early cessation of their function, form an 

 exception.) Especially to be mentioned is an ability to repair 

 anatomic lesions which are not present to the same degree in later 

 life. (Absorption of corneal scars, Fuchs.) 



4. Apart from these general differences, the course of every 

 single disease shows special peculiarities and variations when com- 

 pared to the course observed in adults; these variations are ac- 

 cording to the degree of development and functional activity of 

 the organs concerned, and are the greater the younger the child is. 



This last fact already shows that we have to do with processes 

 which are connected with the development of the organism, and 

 so we are again led to the conclusion that the key to the understand- 

 ing of the special pathology of the infantile organism is to be found 

 in the study of developmental processes. In spite of the large num- 

 ber of facts which are known to us, no attempt has been made, 

 barring a but slightly known study by Barrier, to formulate gen- 

 eral rules and points of view for the development of the infantile 

 organism, and to make clear its relation to the pathogenesis of the 

 diseases of childhood, as will be attempted in the following pages. 



Growth, so far as we understand by this the utilization of food- 

 stuffs for the purpose of new formation and growth of cells (Camerer), 

 demonstrates itself as a function of vegetative life, or more accur- 

 ately expressed the inherent specific living power of the body cells, 

 the vital potentiality. If we, following the idea of R. Hertwig and 

 Exner, see in the conjunction of the male and female egg cells re- 

 spectively in sexual fecundation, the exciting cause for a new and 

 limited series of asexual cell divisions, we must suppose that the 

 power of growth is a function peculiar to the younger and youngest 

 cell generations. We see, then, in the germinal cell, the bearer of 

 the entire potential energy of life, which expresses itself in at first 

 very rapid, but gradually slowing down, growth in the size of the 

 embryo. Unfortunately, we have no useful measure for the inten- 

 sity of these life or growth processes. We may soonest consider 

 the increase in length or bulk, as such, as has already been done 

 by the physiologist, Haller. The first is the more suitable, as, it 

 being the greatest of all body measures, progress in its growth is 

 recognized before all others, and negative variations are excluded. 



