SECTIOX lY. 



LOCAL DISEASES. 

 CHAPTER I. 



GENERAL NATURE OF DISEASES OF THIS GROUP. 



This group of diseases, as contradistinguished from Group I., 

 is intended to embrace all which affect the individual structure 

 of particular parts or organs of the body, and which are 

 mainly characterized by the prominence of some distinctive 

 lesion or disturbance in connection with the performance of 

 certain special functions usually carried on in connection with 

 a healthy condition of these organs or parts. These diseases 

 are, in the majority of cases, sporadic, and they may or may 

 not be associated with such general morbid processes as fever 

 or inflammation. 



When diseases of this group are accompanied by constitu- 

 tional or systemic disturbances, these are usually preceded by 

 the manifestation of the characteristic local symptoms, and 

 the general are to be considered as of secondary importance. 

 No doubt local diseases are sometimes met with which owe 

 their origin to constitutional causes, and where the local dis- 

 turbance and transformation is so great that the attention is 

 directed to these, to the neglect of that which has in reality 

 operated in the production of the more ostensible. 



The diseases included in this group are sometimes spoken of 

 as simple or common, in contradistinction to those of the class 

 in the former group, already examined, termed ' specific' 



They have been thus styled because of their having, in com- 

 mon with the specific diseases, certain features or characters 

 which are taken as the accepted development or recognised 

 standard of some well-known morbid action ; the specific 



