Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1919-07-27
BEGINNINGS tof Disease.

Beginnings of Disease.
| The medical correspondent Of thu
London Times, writing under the
above caption, gives new line Of
thought. as follows:
Modern medical research is d.
rected, in its most advanced aspects
to the discovery of the earliest signs
| of disease. The work has revealed
| all manner Of unexpected facts, anG
! 1t is time that some of these
| here, again. we are dealing with
| observation made very recently anG
still subject to sharp criticism
should be placed before the public
One of the greatest of all origina
thinkers in medicine recently in.
| formed the writer that, after Ions
| investigation, he had come to the
conclusion tll4t the first and earliest
| Of all the signs of disease was ex-
| haustion. His view corresponds tc
| that reached by other workers In
! the same field. 1t Is necessary
however, to define what we mean
| by exhaustion. What we do not
rean is the state of complete mental
| and physical emptiness" which fol-
lows great effort. The symptom
we are dealing with is far slighter
than that--it might be better to call
it simply Initiation of the field Of
response to calls for effort. For eX-
ample. a man has been accustomed
to walk up a certain staircase
briskly and without any discomfort
But now he finds that he has to
slacken his pace little or other
wise he will be short of breath when
he gets to the top. Or, again, a
man discovers that he is more than
usually tired at the end of his days
work and that he tends, in this
state. to feel little giddy or a
little nervous and irritable. Or,
again, a person of even temper be-
gins to win reputation for hasti-
ness He does not concentrate so
we'll as he used to do and small
things irritate and annoy him. He
is apt to lose his temper.
These men are i'll, and the limits
set upon their endeavors. mental or
physical, afford an indication Of the
extent Of their disability. They are
not suffering from muscular weak
ness in the sense that their muscles
are damaged. They are not suffer-
ing from heart mischief in the sense
that they have any heart disease.
They are not suffering from disease
at all if by that term Is meant a
breakdown of particular organ
But they are on their way to disease
nevertheless.
In previous articles we attempted
to show that the poisons of disease
act specially on the nervous system
in a very great many cases. Recent
research has shown that fatigue,
though it Is felt in the muscles,
really occurs in the brain and spinal
cord-in other words, that the brain
cells get tired before the muscles
they control.
This explains why a man who Is
tired out on one occupation becomes
fresh and vigorous again when he
changes to another and so employs
a new set of brain cells-e. g., a
game Of golf after business. even
though the second occupation
make greater demands on his
muscles than the first. Now II we
realize that tiredness or fatigue or
exhaustion occurs in the brain cells
and nervous system and not in the
muscles, and if we accept the view
that the poisons Of many diseases
act primarily on this nervous sys-
tenn, we see at once how 1t comes
about that the very earliest presence
of disease is shown by tiredness.
The poisoned nervous system be-
comes played out sooner than the
healthy one. And the rate Of ex-
haustion Of the nervous system de-
ponds on the amount Of poison
present.
This Is really much better recog-
fhov ho honn
by the doctors, because every one
knows that the process OF living
produces poisons in the bodily sys-
tenn which have to be carried away
and got rid Of Consequently after
poisons are present than is normally
the case, and so, for the time being,
the man will become exhausted
more easily than usual. He will.
in fact, be suffering from normal
degree Of exhaustion occasioned by
the poisons which resulted from his
period Of work and which have not
vet been got rid of. He will tell
you that he "feels too tired to
undertake any more efforts that
day, and very soon he will go off
to rest. During sleep the body
will gradually, in its own subtle
ways, refresh his nervous system,
so that he begins the new day on
good terms with himself.
This is the normal process. The
abnormal, the disease, differs from
it only in the fact that tiredness
and exhaustion come on sooner and
are got rid of with greater trouble.
The doctors business-in the light
of our new knowledse--is to find
out why this is so. If he cannot
find out he fails to discover the
real cause Of the disease and will
be forced to fall back upon treating
the symptoms themselves-he will
have to give drugs which may
tonic" the patient, stop his palpita--
tions, and so on. This is equivalent
to "doctoring up" a tired man with
strong tea in order to keep him
awake a few hours longer.
,Unhappily. it is by no means easy
to get at the first cause OF dis
ease. We may know that disease
is present. yet we may not be able
to detect it. This merely means that
our knowledge is faulty and should
excite us to fresh efforts. 1t in
no sense invalidates the truth of
the view we have expressed. For
instance. man may be suffering
from exhaustion as a result OF
malaria acquired long before. The
malaria organism can often be
found and treated. He may be suf-
fering from tuberculosis in very
early stage. This can also be found,
perhaps He may be poisoning
himself from his own alimentary
tract, and suitable attention to this
may make a new man of him.
He may be addicted to drugs or
alcohol.
But there is a cause. and the
cause is not in the symptoms. That
is the cardinal fact. There Is no
such fundamental disease as de-
bilitv" "neura sthenia, 'palpita-