Excerpt from Heredity, Disease and Human Evolution A knowledge of the leading peculiarities of disease is evidently an essential preliminary to the consideration of the significance Of diseases in the process of human evo lution. One who wishes to speak of disease must know what it is. But we do not need, for such an exposition, the strictly scientific groundwork of knowledge possessed by the pathological expert. It will suffice to start with a clear definition as to the essential nature Of disease, one which will give us a general understanding Of the influence of this process upon the bodily and mental capacity of the individual human being, and in association therewith upon the race as a whole. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.