the local character of the inherited peculiarity, there can at 

 least be no doubt that a morbid proclivity of tissue, predis- 

 posing its subjects to the development of malignant new 

 growths, is most frequently inherited a morbid proclivity, 

 or constitutional peculiarity, which we cannot otherwise 

 regard or describe than as a diathesis ; and upon this con- 

 stitutional taint or vice the malignancy of these new growths 

 mainly depends. As to whether cancer is really hereditary 

 or not is a matter concerning which there is much difference 

 of opinion, but that it is occasionally so is proved by a case 

 of Dr. G. H. Barlow's, in which a lady was the fifth victim 

 to cancer of the liver in two generations. The deposits 

 which constitute new pathological growths, whether innocent, 

 malignant, or semi-malignant, are only so many evidences 

 of the differentiation of pathological processes in different 

 individuals ; for the predisposition may, in one set of 

 individuals, tend towards the production of tubercle, in that 

 of others to cancer, in others to fibroid tissue, and in others 

 to lardaceous matter : in each case there is an inherent 

 morbid proclivity to one or other of these pathological 

 processes, and in each this constitutes a malignant or 

 non-malignant diathesis, which may be perpetuated by 

 hereditary transmission. 



The remaining diatheses may be dismissed in a few words, 

 not entirely because of their comparative, unimportance, but 

 because I feel that I have already dwelt sufficiently upon 

 these deviations from the norm which render individuals 

 different, in a pathological sense, from each other, and which 

 constitute an important element in their individuality. The 

 fact is that no enumeration of the diatheses can be complete, 

 as variation must differ in certainty and extent in proportion 

 to "the mingling of diatheses, and of all dispositions and 



