24 INFECTIOUS AND PARASITIC DISEASES. 



An interesting and important phenomenon 



Infectious concerning the infectious diseases is their 



self-limitinsj nature. Clinical evidence 



ARE Self- ^ ^ ^ ^ 1 . - , . 



LIMITING abundantly corroborates the verity of this 

 statement, since treated or untreated, 

 every infectious disease follows, as it were, a prescribed 

 course. The fact that we divide this course into periods 

 is a significant admission. Except in the case of a 

 few diseases, for which we have specifics, the progress 

 and termination of an infectious disease is determined 

 well-nigh entirely by the reactionary or fighting powers 

 of the body. All living things struggle for existence, 

 which is only another way of saying they resist de- 

 struction. The efforts that an organism puts forth to 

 survive is an inherent quality that it can no more 

 control than it can its birth. Therefore, when the body 

 is attacked by an infectious agent, it sustains the attack 

 with such weapons as nature, through heredity, has 

 supplied it for this very purpose; and to this fact, that 

 nature is by far the greatest healer, all physicians and 

 nurses cannot fail to testify. 



In the sense in which self-limiting is used when refer- 

 ring to infectious diseases, there is, therefore, imphed 

 the meaning that the body delimits the period of disease 

 irrespective of medication. It may seem to aspiring 

 novices in medicine a sad admission, and one that may 

 cause them deep disappointment, yet it cannot be 

 denied that infectious diseases tend to spontaneous 



