The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1883-02-16

year tnat passes over our neaQ& 10
day we are led to take an interest in
topics which at first sight might appear
to be of q highly technical nature. The
public, in truth, are being gradually
educated to that standard where n an
of the advance of scientific
inquiry forms a notable and advanta-
geous feature of life. II there is any
means or method whereby we may truly
extend our years of life in respect of the
we obtain from them. that
method is most likely to be found in the
proper use of those faculties whereby
we bring ourselves into harmonious re-
lation with our surroundings. The fore
going remarks apply with force to q
subject preached very recently by no
less an authority than Sir James Paget,
the eminent surgeon. Selecting as the
topic of q lecture delivered before the
ROYAL College of Surgeons at London
" Some New and Rare Diseases" Sir
contrived to place before the
profession and the public alike series
of most interesting facts bearing very
on some of the causes which
shorten and end the human existence. 1t
is not too much to say that the old ideas
of disease have been completely over
turned and replaced by newer and more
rational conceptions of causation. We
recognize that in some cases diseases
are handed down as heritage of physi-
evil from one generation to an
other. In other cases, where diseases
appear Suddenly and spontaneously. We
look narrowly into our ways of living.
our surroundings. and our relations to
heat, weather and other conditions of
life. In many instances we are ale to
lay our finger on the exact causes of
diseases which. but few years ago,
were deemed OF mystical origin. We
know that fevers are propagated and
through their material
germs being carried from the infected
to the healthy household. Conversely,
we know that by isolating and separ-
ating our fever cases we en- prevent
the spread of the fever, just as by strict
attention to the bodily health we can
often ward off the terrible attack alto
gether. The fever, like the broken leg.
has become strictly and fully explica-
BILE; and the growth of sound science in
this respect has an obvious bearing on
the health and welfare of our race.
Sir James Paget starts the highly-in-
teresting question in the lecture we have
referred to, why is any disease rare?'
The query relates not to rare cases of
for example, where we'll
known and common disease may appear
in an uncommon or unusual situati on in
the living body-but to cases of all
ments which in themselves are new or
rare. 1t is evident that to-day the
physician and surgeon know of vast
numbers of diseases which receive no
mention whatever at the hands of Hip
pocrates, Galen, and other CLASSIC
writers. For instance, govt and rheu-
matism, ague, and many other COM
plants of humanity, have been recog-
nized and treated from the earliest
phases of medical study. But there are
numerous ailme nts which have been
noted and described within a compare
lively small period of human ex-
perience. Hence the question arises.
Why do we find no mention Of such
diseases in the records of physicians?
and WHY do we never find examples of
such diseased products on the shelves
of our great museums? The answer to
these questions is by no means so readily
supplied as we might suppose. Doubt
less the improvement of the means for
detecting disease must have enlarged the
experience of the physicians. The
microscope, stethoscope and other APP
planes have enabled us to. look below
the surface of things. and peer into the
secrets of living histories. The long
roll of diseases owes not 'ew OF its most
serious items to the detective skill of
the patient worker with the microscope.
Just as close observation of the result OF
disease as witnessed after death has
proved one of the most valuable means
of assisting and relieving the ailments o.
the living. There is also no question that
many dis aases now well known to us
were simply passed over by the anoients.
and by even the preceding generations
to ourselves. 1t is only some thirty years
or so since Sir William Jenner showed
clearly that typhoid fever was an entirely
different ailment from tvphus fever. As
Sir James Paget remarks, this observa-
ton was one of the "best life-saving
discoveries of this century; before it,
both diseases were at least partially mis-
understood. and neither was so well
treated as now" Proceeding to show that
while we may account for certain So
called new" diseases by the oversight
of what were in reality common
enough details long ago, Sir James
Paget arrives at the gist of his inquiry
in the statement that diseases, like
animals and plants themselves. possess
a development. In other words. we
find diseases known to-day which were
unknown even few years ago, and the
absence of which from our lists can
alone be explained on the theory that
the ailments in question are absolutely
new" and that they have been recently
''evolved." There is thus known cry
singular affection of joints called Char
cots disease" Named after the tele-
brated French physician. this affection
is of such marked character that in the
case of the knee joint, the patient is I'M
able to stand upright. Other signs and
symptoms of this disease are so mani
fest even to the uninitiated mind and
eye that the possibility of this disease
having been simply unnoticed by pre-
ceding generations is practically put out
of court 1t is so with another disease
of bones described by Sir James Paget.
both this latter ailment and .'CharcOt's
being. so to speak. only a few
wears old. In no museum is there an
old specimen of the latter disease. Even
in the celebrated Dupuytren Museum of
Paris there is not single specimen OF
it. Yet so common is it to-day that, as
Sir James Paget tells us. a London ply
stefan has had no fewer than nine cases
under his care at one time. Hence the
to which we seem to be
driven is simply that these diseases are
in process of development, and that.