Abstract
THE author, whose work is based on his experience as medical officer in charge of a native reserve in Kenya as well as in private practice in England, maintains that in a small but important number of diseases which can be divided into two groups a relationship can be traced between civilization and the disease. The first group comprises four diseases, namely, high blood pressure, diabetes mellitus, exophthalmic goitre and peptic ulcer, while the second group consists of functional disorders usually known as psychoneuroses. High pressure, it is shown, is rare in primitive races and its incidence increases with development in towns and with education, while it is common in the African in America and very prevalent in Europe and the United States. The same holds good with regard to diabetes mellitus, exophthalmic goitre, peptic ulcer and psychoneuroses. In other diseases, according to the author, there seems to be some relationship with civilization, but the evidence is too inadequate to justify any definite conclusions.
Civilization and Disease
Dr.
C. P.
Donnison
By. Pp. xv+222. (London: Bailliere, Tindall and Cox, 1937.) 10s. 6d.
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Civilization and Disease. Nature 142, 235 (1938). https://doi.org/10.1038/142235c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/142235c0