Self-Health

All diseases may be likened to a string of beads, the string representing the true disease--toxemia--and the so-called diseases, which should be called affections, being represented by the beads. Break the cord, and the beads are lost--correct the toxin, and affections subside.

I have found no better definition for disease than the following: Disease is the morbid process considered in its entire evolution from its initial cause to its final consequence; affection is a morbid process considered in its actual manifestations, apart from its cause.

All diseases may be likened to a string of beads, the string representing the true disease--toxemia--and the so-called diseases, which should be called affections, being represented by the beads. Break the cord, and the beads are lost--correct the toxin, and affections subside. I have found no better definition for disease than the following: Disease is the morbid process considered in its entire evolution from its initial cause to its final consequence; affection is a morbid process considered in its actual manifestations, apart from its cause.

Being an encyclopedic collection of rare and extraordinary cases, and of the most striking instances of abnormality in all branches of medicine and surgery, derived from an exhaustive research of medical literature from its origin to the present day, abstracted, classified, annotated, and indexed. Since the time when man's mind first busied itself with subjects beyond his own self-preservation and the satisfaction of his bodily appetites, the anomalous and curious have been of exceptional and persistent fascination to him; and especially is this true of the construction and functions of the human body. This is a large manuscript of nearly 700 pages in an 11 inch by 8 inch book.

Life embraces much that is unknown and in so far as disease is a condition of living things it too presents many problems which are insoluble with our present knowledge. Fifty years ago the extent of the unknown, and at that time insoluble questions of disease, was much greater than at present, and the problems now are in many ways different from those in the past. No attempt has been made to simplify the subject by the presentation of theories as facts.

IT has been well said that the bulwarks of a nation are the mothers. Any contribution to the physical, and hence the mental, perfection of woman should be welcomed alike by her own sex, by the thoughtful citizen, by the political economist, and by the hygienist. Observation of the truths, expressed in a modest, pleasing, and conclusive manner, in the essay of Dr. Galbraith contribute to this end. These truths should be known by every woman, and I gladly commend the essay to their thoughtful consideration.

Man, know thyself, said the old Greek philosopher. Man perforce has taken that advice to heart. His life-long interest is his own species. In the cradle he begins to collect observations on the nature of the queer beings about him. As he grows, the research continues, amplifies, broadens. Wisdom he measures by the devastating accuracy of the data he accumulates. When he declares he knows human nature, consciously cynical maturity speaks.