mTRODTJCTIOK 



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CAUSES OF DISEASE. 



Scientific men give three names when they speak of 

 the causes of disease — exciting, predisposing, and proximate. 

 The first may justly be termed the originators of disease; 

 by the second is meant those more easily acted upon by 

 causes that a more healthy animal would resist altogether ; 

 and the third is almost the disease itself. Of the causes 

 with which we are acquainted, not many of them are alike, 

 and their effects, that is, the disease, just as diverse. 



These causes are named in the following table : 



1. Electric, and other conditions of the atmosphere. 



2. Food and water. 



3. Overwork. 



4. Poisons — animal, vegetable, mineral, and zumins, or 

 ferments. 



5. Malformations, or badly-formed parts. 



6. Age and decay. 



7. Changes of temperature 



8. Hereditary influence. 



9. Mechanical. 



10. Starvation. 



That the writer may be more clearly understood in 



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