121 



morbid processes by which he may be assailed during his 

 existence ; and the practical outcome of the due recognition 

 of this fact will be that every patient will cease to be regarded 

 as a mere animated machine like each of his fellows, and be 

 appreciated as a man, in his microcosm, and as differing not 

 only in form and feature from every other man, but also in 

 temperament and diathesis, and in everything that concerns 

 his predisposition towards morbid processes. Portal has 

 justly observed, that in the treatment of patients whose 

 ancestors are known to have died of some interior organic 

 defect, we always ought to presume the possibility of the 

 existence of a similar defect; and, if the diagnosis be 

 doubtful, we should, by a strict investigation, endeavour to 

 find out whether our apprehension be well-founded or not. 

 How all-important therefore is an intimate knowledge of the 

 life-history of every individual, before we can diagnose his 

 real condition, and treat him accordingly. 



Diseases of the Nervous System. Not one alone, but 

 several volumes might be written in discussing the diseases 

 of the nervous system as affected by individuality. In the 

 few pages at my disposal, I hope, however, to make it 

 clear that owing to heredity, and natural or acquired 

 variability they are all more or less subject to its influence. 

 Indeed, so fully is this recognised that it has been alleged 

 that the mysteries of hereditary transmission are pent up in 

 the nervous system, and that the hereditary phenomena 

 of disease are due to modifications in nervous matter. 

 But how these modifications "pass from the parent to the 

 offspring, and that, too, by paternal as well as by maternal 

 line, is simple mystery, on which science merely speaks as 

 yet to tell us that the fact must be accepted." 1 In the 

 1 Dr. B. W. Richardson. 



