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bility and contractility. So, if we contrast the diseases to 

 which females are specially liable with those occurring more 

 characteristically in males, we shall find the former far more 

 liable to those of an asthenic type than are the latter. Men 

 are more subject to fatal inflammatory attacks than women ; 

 they are also more intemperate, and more exposed to violence 

 and accident. Women, owing especially to the fact of their 

 having a uterus, are far more predisposed to nervous 

 affections than men are, and the causes which usually 

 produce inflammation in men, will frequently, in the case of 

 women, merely give rise to functional disturbance. The 

 uterus and its functions, however, give rise to diseases and 

 disorders in women, from which men are happily free ; for, 

 during maidenhood there are either excesses, deficiencies, 

 or other irregularities or complications associated with 

 menstruation, and during matronhood, pregnancy, delivery, 

 lactation, and menopause give origin to a " sea of troubles." 

 Practically, however, the great point to be remembered is 

 that whilst in man diseases and derangements of a sthenic 

 character are more frequently observed, in women they are 

 usually characterised by asthenia and want of tone and 

 vigour in the nervous system. 



Predisposition may be , acquired by a number of agents, 

 which operate either externally or internally upon the body. 

 A disorder or disease once affects the body, and having been 

 removed, leaves behind some weakened part, some latent 

 fault, which, though not seen under the tranquil state of the 

 body, becomes disorder or disease when the body receives 

 a shock. The weak part sustains all the injury when any 

 exciting cause operates on the body. Thus, again, the 

 habits of life, mode of living, and nature of occupation, are 

 amongst the most powerful predisposing causes of or safe- 



