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Disease and Its Causes by William Thomas Councilman

W >> William Thomas Councilman >> Disease and Its Causes




There seems to be a balance maintained between the restriction of
disease by prevention and the increased influence of social conditions
which are in themselves factors of disease. Preventive medicine seems
to have made possible, by restricting their harmful influence, the
increase in industrialism, in urban life, and in the
intercommunications of peoples. The most important aid in the future
to the influence of preventive medicine must be the education of the
people so that the conditions of disease, the intrinsic and the
extrinsic causes and the manner in which these act, shall all become a
part of general knowledge, and the sympathy of the people with health
legislation and their active assistance in carrying out measures of
prevention may be obtained. The effect of social conditions on disease
must become more generally recognized.




GLOSSARY


ATROPHY--A condition of imperfect nutrition producing diminution in
size and loss of function of parts.

BERTILLON--A French anthropologist who devised a system of
measurements of the human body for purposes of identification.

BLOOD-PLASMA--The fluid of the blood.

CELL--The unit of living matter. Living things may be unicellular or
composed of a multitude of cells which are interdependent. The
general mass of material forming the cell is termed cytoplasm. In this
there is a differentiated area termed nucleus which governs the
multiplication of cells. In the nucleus is a material termed chromatin
which bears the factors of heredity.

CHEMOTROPISM--The influence of chemical substances in directing the
movement of organisms.

EXUDATE--The material which passes from the blood into an injured part
and causes the swelling.

FIBRIN--The gelatinous material formed in the blood when it clots.

HAEMOGLOBIN--A substance which gives the red color to the blood; by
means of its ready combination with the oxygen of the air in the lungs
this necessary element is carried to all parts of the body.

INFLAMMATION--Literally a "burning"; the changes which take place in a
part after injury.

LYMPH--The fluid which is contained in the lymphatic vessels--nodes.
Circumscribed masses of cells connected with the lymphatic vessels.

OSMOSIS--The process of diffusion between fluids of different
molecular pressures.

SPORE FORMATION--A mode of reproduction in lower forms of life by
which resistant bodies, _spores_, are formed. These have many
analogies with the seed of higher plants.

SYMBIOSIS--A mutual adaptation between parasite and host.

TRANSUDATION--The normal interchange of fluid between the blood and
the tissue fluids. The material interchanged is the transudate.

TROPISM--The influence of forces which direct the movement of cells.

ULTRA-MICROSCOPE--A form of microscope which by means of oblique
illumination renders visible objects so small as to be invisible with
the ordinary microscope.

VIRUS--A substance either living or formed by living things which may
cause disease.




INDEX


Amoeba, 13

Anthrax, 109

Antitoxin, 154


Bacteria, 116
adaptation in, 123
aerobic, 122
anaerobic, 122
artificial cultivation of, 119
distribution in nature, 121
growth and reproduction, 118
mode of action in disease, 144
size, 117
spore formation, 118
substances affecting growth of, 123
toxin production by, 144
variations in, 123

Blood, 35
circulation of, 33, 80
vessels, 32

Body, 22
defenses of, 146
organs of, 28
reserve force of, 50
surfaces of, 22

Brain, 31


Cerebro-spinal meningitis, 188

Chemotropism, 93

Cretinism, 37


Darwinism, 240

Death, 57
decomposition after, 51
rigor after, 60
signs of, 59

Disease, 1
action of poisons, 44
acute and chronic, 219
industrialism as factor in, 243
lesions of, 46
superstitions concerning, 10
urban life as factor in, 244
wealth and poverty as factors in, 246

Ductless glands, 37


Embryo, 77

Epilepsy, 209

Eugenics, 215


Foetus, 32
infection of, 200

Foot and Mouth Disease, 129

Glands, 22

Growth, 62


Heart, 33, 221
disease of, 223

Heliotropism, 93

Heredity, 197
influence of alcohol, 206
of insanity, 209
variations and imitations, 204

Hookworm disease, 179


Immunity, 148
theories of, 149
natural, 150

Infection, 135
from external surface, 136
from genito-urinary surface, 137
from lungs, 138
from mouth, 138
from stomach and intestines, 139
from wounds, 141
in children, 195
in wild animals, 191
latent, 166
mixed, 160
racial susceptibility to, 191
resistance to, 143
by air, 170
by insects, 171

Infectious diseases, 97
carriers of, 185
comparison with fermentation, 108
epidemics of, 98
endemic, epidemic and sporadic forms, 188
modes of transmission, 161

Inflammation, 80
acute and chronic, 95

Injury, 54-74

Insanity, 231
causes of, 232
question of increase, 235


Lesion, 17

Leucocytes, 36
migration of, 92

Living matter, 10


Malaria, 175
role of mosquito in transmitting, 178

Malformations, 211
heredity of, 215

Maternal impressions, 212


Nervous system, 228
disease of, 230
effect of social life on, 233

Neurasthenia, 238


Old age, 51
atrophy in, 51
blood vessels in, 54
causes of death in, 56
in animals and plants, 55
mental activity in, 53

Osmosis, 91

Opsonius, 153

Ovum, 201
fertilization of, 198
infection of, 199


Phagocytosis, 86

Plague, 182
transmission by animals, 183

Plasmodium Malariae, 175

Preventive medicine, 242

Protozoa, 124
distribution in nature, 125
mode of growth, 125
sexual differentiation, 125
spore formation, 125

Polyomyelitis, 190


Repair, 46
conditions influencing, 47


Scar, 49

Skin, 21

Sleeping sickness, 173

Smallpox, 187

Spontaneous generation, 106

Sunburn, 83

Syphilis, 193


Tetanus, 142

Thymus, 52

Thyroid, 37

Tonsils, 52

Toxins, 144

Tropisms, 93

Trypanosomes, 172

Tuberculosis, 163
infection by sputum, 169
modes of extension, 163

Tumors, 64
benign and malignant, 69
cells of, 66
color, size and shape, 65
growth of, 65
importance of, 77
origin of, 66
question of increase, 69
theories of cause, 71
treatment of, 77

Typhoid fever, 170


Ultra-microscopic organisms, 128


Virus, 128


Yellow fever, 178

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We do not know the women's names, but their voices are quite distinct. All are pregnant. But while the first woman awaits the birth of her baby with a moon-like serenity, the other two are not so lucky. One, whose previous pregnancies have failed to go to term, is experiencing a heartbreaking late miscarriage; the other is a young student whose accidental pregnancy will end in her child being put up for adoption.

Sylvia Plath's only play was never intended for the stage, being broadcast instead on BBC radio in August 1962. Less than six months later, Plath killed herself, but not before the burst of astonishing creative energy that produced her extraordinary, terrifying Ariel poems.

Anyone who knows Plath's poetry will see the connection between Three Women and Plath's subsequent poems, particularly in the way she talks about the agony of childbirth, the rush of love for this tiny alien being, and both the wonder and wounded rawness of motherhood. It is a beautiful piece, full of startling imagery that draws you in through the sheer intensity of its femaleness, and because it so precisely articulates the emotions that are often thought but seldom voiced by women - certainly not in the early 1960s - about men, motherhood and our relationship to our bodies.

It's been 20 years since there has been an attempt at a professional stage version and - in a theatre world that happily accepts the poetic offerings of Sarah Kane and Debbie Tucker Green, or the staged possibilities of The Waves, one of Plath's own inspirations for the piece, I see no reason why it shouldn't be brought to life. Sadly, it doesn't breathe here, in a production by Robert Shaw that is clearly a labour of love, but which never finds a way to give the internal a physical reality. Plath's poetry, like most babies, is more robust than it appears - and won't break if treated with a little less reverence and considerably more grit.

Instead, what we are offered is tinkling piano music, mournful mood lighting, an innocuous pale setting, as well as three perfectly good but indisputably ladylike performances that capture none of the wounded redness of Plath's poetry, and do her the disservice of making her sound bleached and somewhat prissy. It's a pity. What might have been a wonder ends up a mere curiosity.

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