The discovery that a diseased condition of the blood leads to certain
bodily disturbances which we call disease, was soon followed by the
realization of the fact that one of the main conditions which bring
about such disturbances is predisposition, which in many cases is
hereditary.
"Hereditary disease" simply means that the improper chemical composition
of the blood of one or both parents has become duplicated in the
offspring, and that it has similar consequences in causing the
degeneration of certain tissues, and consequently of the organs composed
thereof, as may have been the case in the parents.
It is at least reassuring to know, however, _that to the modern
hygienic-dietetic system of healing, heredity, though perhaps more
tenacious, is by no means an invincible enemy_.
With a predisposition to disease the child acquires also the hereditary
tendency to self-protection, and thus rational hygienic-dietetic
treatment may be able to eliminate, in a comparatively short time, the
chain of diseases which in former years, generations have carried
hopelessly to the grave.