THE AUTOGENOUS DISEASES. 353 



of the fat of the food is split up into glycerin and fatty 

 acids by the action of the pancreatic juice, a much smaller 

 per cent, enters the thoracic duct in this divided form. 

 The food may be taken in proper quality and quantity ; 

 the digestive juices may do their work promptly and 

 properly, but if the absorbents fail to perform their func- 

 tions properly, disease results. It may happen that the 

 failure lies in improper or imperfect assimilation and the 

 result becomes equally disastrous, and with the effects of 

 non-elimination we are fairly conversant. Of the myriads 

 of cells in the healthy human body there are none which 

 are superfluous. It is true that among these ultimate 

 entities of existence, death is constantly occurring, but in 

 health regeneration goes on with equal rapidity and each 

 organ continues to do its daily and hourly task. The 

 microscope has made us familiar with the size and shape 

 of the various cells of the body, and students of pathology 

 have described the alterations in form and size character- 

 istic of various disease states. But we must remember 

 that in the study of these ultimate elements of life there 

 are other things, besides their morphological history, to 

 investigate. They are endowed with life, and they, as well 

 as the germs, have a physiology and chemistry which we 

 know but slightly. They are influenced beneficially or 

 harmfully, as the case may be, by their environment. 

 They grow and perform their functions properly when 

 supplied with the needed pabulum. They are not immune 

 to poisonous agents. They are injured when the products 

 of their own activity accumulate about them. 



The object in writing this chapter has been to collect 

 what evidence we may concerning those diseases which 

 arise from imperfect or improper activity of the cells of the 

 body, not due to the introduction of foreign cells. To 

 designate this class of diseases we have selected the word 

 autogenous, and we understand that in these diseases the 

 materies morbi is a product of some cell of the body, and 

 not, as in the case of the infections diseases, of cells intro- 

 duced from without the body. 



It is true, without exception so far as we know, that the 



