242 MARRIAGE AND DISEASE. 



Of course Dr. Richardson means diathesis, or 

 disease tendency, when he here speaks of the inter- 

 marriage of disease. The examples he gives of the 

 result of the union of the rheumatic and consumptive 

 are what we might expect ; the rheumatic condition 

 having more or less devitalised the bones, joints, 

 and connective tissues generally, these structures are 

 naturally seized upon by the scrofulous disease germs 

 as the most vulnerable point of attack. 



