The defensive arrangements of the body as illustrated by the incidence of disease in children and adults : the Wightman lecture for 1908 / by Sir Watson Cheyne.

  • Cheyne, William Watson, Sir, 1852-1932.
Date:
[1908?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The defensive arrangements of the body as illustrated by the incidence of disease in children and adults : the Wightman lecture for 1908 / by Sir Watson Cheyne. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    attack both adults and children, but the young are more especially susceptible to some, while their elders are more susceptible to others. Or, again, we find that some diseases are more virulent in children than in adults, and vice versa. Perhaps the most striking fact of all, and the one to which I wish especially to draw your attention, is that in diseases which are common to both children and adults the organs and tissues which are attacked by the virus may differ markedly according to the age of the patient. That such differences in the incidence of disease in children and adults are very common is a point which hardly requires any elabora- tion. The exanthemata, for instance, are very often spoken of as children’s ailments, and some explain the fact that they are most frequent in children by saying that practically all individuals are highly susceptible to them, and being widely spread, no individual can live long in the world without being exposed to infection. This may be in part true, but 1 can hardly accept it as a complete explanation of the facts; I cannot but think that, quite irrespective of opportunities of infection, the susceptibility of the individual varies according to age. Even in the case of children, the exanthemata differ among themselves as to