112 



(3) Physical[deformities and \ 



deficiencies of special > e.g.. Blindness, deafness, etc. 

 senses / 



{Degeneration of vessels : fatty changes 

 in organs, loss of elasticity in the 

 skin. Premature greyness or bald- 

 ness, loss of teeth, and other signs 

 of decay. 



(5) Some skin diseases, especially lepra and psoriasis. 

 <6) Emphysema and asthma. 



(7) Gravel and urinary calculus. 



(8) Haemorrhoids. 



(9) Cretinism and albinism. 

 (10) Hernia. 



(n) Icterus. 

 (12) Dropsy. 



Hippocrates seems to have believed that almost all 

 diseases can become hereditary, judging from the following 

 quotation : " Ex pituitoso pituitosus, ex bilioso biliosus 

 gignitur, ut ex tabido tabidus, et ex lienoso lienosus" etc. 

 This opinion was evidently adopted by the majority of early 

 physicians, and many even considered all fevers and inflam- 

 mations as hereditary. Day by day we are learning that 

 the hereditary proclivities of disease extend much further 

 than any list now usually accepted, and that a new line for 

 observation is thus indicated, which, industriously followed 

 out, promises to yield the most important results. Dr. B. 

 W. Richardson says : " The further my own investigations 

 extend of the present, from experience and experiment : 

 of the past, from historical reading the stronger is the 

 impression made upon my mind that the majority of the 

 phenomena of disease have a certain hereditariness of 

 character. For instance, that phenomenon which we call 

 intermittent action of the heart, I have found to be distinctly 

 hereditary. I have seen a child who exhibited it at the 

 moment of birth, and to whom it was traceable through two 



