igo 



cazteris partbus, may be regarded as, to some extent, patho- 

 gnomonic. Frequently associated with pregnancy, this 

 almost invariably fatal condition sometimes occurs as a 

 complication during ordinary anaemia, but the causes of 

 such complication are completely unknown as, indeed, is 

 almost everything concerning either its etiology or pathology. 

 At the same time, as it is closely allied to anaemia and 

 chlorosis which, as we have seen, are both hereditary 

 I cannot abandon the idea that in some cases, at least, there 

 is an hereditary element in its production ; there can, at any 

 rate, be no effect without a cause, and as the causes of 

 disease are either inherited or acquired, I shall at least 

 maintain the hypothesis of heredity, until it can be proved 

 that this mysterious condition is dependent entirely upon 

 external circumstances for its causation. 



Corpulence or Obesity. It must be admitted that a predis- 

 position to this condition is generally either inherited or 

 congenital, and this despite all other causes that can be 

 assigned. Those who are predisposed will become fat under 

 any circumstances, and in any rank or condition of life. 

 Like most hereditary constitutional anomalies, its transmis- 

 sion consists in a tendency only, and it may also be included 

 amongst those affections which occur at corresponding, 

 periods of life. Thus it may occur during infancy, or not 

 until the fortieth year or thereabouts, and later. It has not 

 yet been determined whether sex has any influence on the 

 hereditariness of this affection, or whether the male or female 

 parent has most to do with the transmission of the tendency, 

 It is more than probable, however, that the predisposition 

 more frequently descends from and to the same sex viz.,, 

 from father to son, and from mother to daughter. 



Immermann, in discussing the peculiarities of constitution 

 upon which the inherited corpulence can depend, enumerates 



