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inflammation, the more prone they are to yield again ; x and 

 thus, a diathetic condition may be established in an indi- 

 vidual, who may transmit the same to his offspring. It is, 

 at any rate, a well-known fact that while some individuals 

 and families are especially predisposed to inflammatory 

 processes, others are not, and it is amongst the former that 

 local cutaneous inflammations generally occur. With regard 

 to the cutaneous eruptions which are known to be local 

 manifestations of diathetic states, and which include scrofu- 

 loderma, syphiloderma, leprous eruptions, frambcesia or 

 yaws, etc., it goes without saying that heredity is a potent 

 underlying element in their production. 



In those affections of the skin included under the names 

 hypertrophic or atrophic there is essentially an innate dis- 

 position in the skin tissues themselves to take on a diseased 

 condition, and the same may be said of the majority of the 

 diseases of the sweat and sebaceous glands, of the hair, 

 follicles, and nails. In the former category are included, 

 amongst the hypertrophic variety, warts, corns, xeroderma, 

 ichthyosis, keloid, fibroma, morphoea, and scleroderma : and 

 amongst the atrophic, senile and linear atrophy, and general 

 marasmus. As these are all more or less dependent upon 

 an inherited predisposition in the integument itself, it is 

 evident that here, too, heredity is of prime importance in 

 their production. 



Concerning new formations, I have elsewhere shown that 

 they depend upon diathesis, constituting as they do one of 

 the diathetic varieties. This group includes lupus, cancer, 

 rodent ulcer, and xanthelasma. Mr. Hutchinson regards 



1 For a detailed discussion of this interesting subject the reader is 

 referred to Mr. Jonathan Hutchinson's most admirable and very 

 suggestive work, " The Pedigree of Disease," to which the writer is 

 under many obligations. 



