228 PHYSIC 



phenomena of the attack as to be the only apparent patho- 

 logical condition calling for consideration and treatment. 



All this implies that we have in urticaria to deal with an 

 exanthematous disease, the incubation of which is so rapid 

 as sometimes to be reckoned by hours, or even minutes, 

 efflorescence or eruption by a like period, and the establish- 

 ment of the status quo ante by the same brief method and 

 manner of pathological development and sequence. More- 

 over, the behaviour of the more intense and violent 

 varieties of the disease but accentuate this differential 

 diagnosis, and bring it into line with that of the pro- 

 nounced exanthemata in manner of origin, culmination, 

 and decline, and proclaim the great fact that the central 

 nervous system is the fons et origo of the great proportion 

 of eruptive diseases. Given facilities for the introduction 

 of an exanthematous virus into the cerebro-spinal cavity, 

 including the cerebro-spinal fluid and the nervine struc- 

 tures proper, the cultural conditions there found by that 

 virus are so intrinsically conducive to the spread and 

 pathogenic influence of it as to ensure its easy pathological 

 progress, whether it be chemical, physical, or bacterial, in 

 nature and properties ; from which it follows that we are 

 likely to discover that, with every increase of facilities 

 and powers of differential diagnosis, the number of 

 diseases having a nervine origin is ever increasing, and 

 that the sphere of nervine influence within the area of 

 pathogenesis is constantly broadening and extending, and 

 affording, at the same time, a clearer view of the thera- 

 peutic paths to follow in our everyday ameliorative and 

 curative work. 



Thus, the vis medicatrix nature proclaims or indicates 

 in her whole behaviour that we must constantly aim at 

 clearing both the central and peripheral nervine elements 

 of the pathogenic influences at work in the evolution of 

 exanthematous disease, and in assisting to neutralise the 

 untoward effects of their morbid work. 



