3i6 Mayow 



absolutely required not only for nutrition but also 

 for motion. 



And so, in fine, we have deduced the symptoms 

 of this disease from obstruction of the spinal marrow^ 

 as its source. 



And here it may be asked how it comes about that 

 older persons are never attacked by this disease^ 

 seeing that they, as well as infants, suffer from obstruc- 

 tion of nerves, as in paralysis and other diseases of 

 that kind. I answer that although perhaps children 

 are chiefly liable to this disease, yet adults sometimes 

 suffer from the same disorder under another name. 

 Yet that the above-described symptoms for the most 

 part never appear in older patients, arises from a 

 difference not of disease but of age. For as the 

 great size of the head, the curvature of the bones,, 

 and some other of the symptoms are produced by the 

 abnormal increase in size of parts, it is altogether 

 impossible that adults, already at the limit of growth,. 

 i.e.^ unable to grow any more at all, should grow 

 abnormally : so that in adults suffering from this 

 disease the head does not, as in children, increase 

 beyond its proper size, because the head has already 

 attained the limit of growth which the very laws of 

 nature forbid it to exceed. But while the parts 

 cannot increase abnormally in adults, still the disease 

 does the one thing that in their case it can, by 

 emaciating them. 



As to the prognosis, this disease is usually not 

 lethal in itself ; yet sometimes by the aggravation of 

 the symptoms it degenerates into Phthisis, Tabes,, 

 Hectic Fever, Dropsy of the Lungs or Ascites, and so 

 at last is fatal to the patient. But the prognosis can 

 be more easily established by the following rules : — 



I. This disorder is most dangerous and often fatal 



