THEORY OF DYSCRASIA ITS LOCAL ORIGIN. 163 



changes also declare themselves in the blood, so that its 

 altered state must continue as long as the supply of fresh 

 noxious matters takes place, or as, in consequence of 

 a previous supply, individual organs remain in a diseased 

 condition. If no more alcohol be ingested, if the organs 

 which had been injured by the previous indulgence in it 

 be restored to their normal condition, there is no doubt 

 but that the dyscrasia will therewith terminate. This ex- 

 ample, applied to the history of all the remaining dyscra- 

 siae, elucidates in a very simple manner the proposition, 

 that every dyscrasia is dependent upon a permanent supply 

 of noxious ingredients from certain sources. As a con- 

 tinual ingestion of injurious articles of food is capable of 

 producing a permanently faulty composition of the blood, 

 in like manner persistent disease in a definite organ is 

 able to furnish the blood with a continual supply of mor- 

 bid materials. 



The essential point, therefore, is to search for the 

 local origins of the different dyscrasiae, to discover the 

 definite tissues or organs from which this derangement 

 in the constitution of the blood proceeds. Now I am quite 

 willing to confess that it has not in many cases hitherto 

 been possible to find out these tissues or organs. In 

 many cases, however, success has been obtained, although 

 it cannot be said in every instance in what way the blood 

 has become changed. Thus we have that remarkable 

 condition, which may very well be referred to a dyscra- 

 sia, the scorbutic condition, purpura, and the petechial 

 dyscrasia. In vain will you look around for decisive in- 

 formation as to the nature of this dyscrasia, and as to the 

 kind of change experienced by the blood when purpura 

 or scurvy show themselves. What has been found by 

 one has been contradicted by another, and it has even 

 been shown that sometimes no change had taken place 

 in the proportions of the grosser constituents of the 



