CONSUMPTION PRIMARILY A NERVE DISEASE.Read before the Illinois State Medical Society, May, 1893.

Abstract

Professor of Physiology, Nervous and Mental in College of Physicians and Surgeons, Keokuk, Iowa.—Professor of Physiology and Pathology in United States Dental College—Surgeon of the Columbian Accident Company—Attending Physician National Temperance Hospital—Member American Medical Association—Illinois State Medical Society—Chicago Medical Society—Chicago Pathological Society—Chicago Academy of Sciences—Ex-President Chicago Pathological Society, etc. I have for years entertained the idea that the initial lesion or vice causing consumption is in the nervous system. In January 1880, 1 read a paper bearing the title Consumption a Nerve Disease before the Iowa State Medical Society. Causes of all diseases may be divided into internal and external. External causes arise from the patient's environments and are generally called exciting causes. Internal causes are congenital or hereditary defects or vice. This is generally termed predisposing causes. Primary cause here is meant some abnormal condition of the nervous system, which may arise from the patient's environment or heredity