242 THEORY OF DISEASE. 



brought to them in larger quantity than usual, will be 

 expelled from the body in the form of oxidized com- 

 pounds. 



III. 



THEORY OF DISEASE. 



Every substance or matter, every chemical or me- 

 chanical agency, which changes or disturbs the restora- 

 tion of the equilibrium between the manifestations of 

 the causes of waste and supply, in such a way as to 

 add its action to the causes of waste, is called a cause 

 of disease. Disease occurs when the sum of vital 

 force, which tends to neutralize all causes of disturb- 

 ance (in other words, when the resistance offered by 

 the vital force), is weaker than the acting cause of 

 disturbance. 



Death is that condition in which all resistance on 

 the part of the vital force entirely ceases. So long as 

 this condition is not established, the living tissues con- 

 tinue to offer resistance. 



To the observer, the action of a cause of disease 

 exhibits itself in the disturbance of the proportion be- 

 tween waste and supply which is proper to each period 

 of life. In medicine, every abnormal condition of 

 supply or of waste, in all parts or in a single part of 

 the bcdy, is called disease. 



