99 



regarding it as a diathesis at all is the fact that, as soon as 

 the acuter symptoms have subsided, it sometimes happens 

 that it assumes a chronic form, associated with permanent 

 ill-health ; and not only so, but there is every reason to 

 believe that the modification of health, so induced, may be 

 transmitted by heredity. 1 Although, therefore, scurvy is a 

 disease of comparatively short duration, it is capable 

 occasionally of not only modifying the health, but of 

 transmitting its influence hereditarily; and as its essential 

 cause is as stated, a defective diet, there is every reason why 

 it should be included among the food-diatheses. 



The Diathesis of Morbid New Growths, This term is 

 employed by Mr. Hutchinson to denote " cancer in its old 

 and popular sense, as including malignant new growths of 

 all kinds ;" and as we have the term carcinoma, as opposed 

 to sarcoma, by which to differentiate certain malignant new 

 growths from others, he regrets that the word cancer is not 

 still retained to designate all kinds of malignant new growths, 

 which, in examining as to diathesis, must all be grouped 

 into one family, so that the individual tendencies to new 

 growths in general should be estimated without over- 

 regarding differences of kind, especially as " some persons 

 display more than one form, and when hereditary trans- 

 mission occurs it is very common to see it produce a growth 

 of a different kind from the original." I must be careful to 

 distinguish between the terms diathesis and dyscrasia in 

 relation to cancerous growths, for as the former signifies 

 merely an inherent proclivity to cancer in the tissues, the 

 latter concerns the actual development of cancer in .the 

 body, with its associated ill-health. Is there any condition 

 of tissue-health, pre-existing before the actual development 



1 Ibid. 



