The commencing stage is necessary to the very existence of pathology. It is difficult to say at what precise point perfect health begins to pass into "disease." Organs and functions verge from the ideally healthy standard by almost imperceptible degrees--at first too trifling to cause any material inconvenience, but, afterwards, so far as to endanger life.

Pathology does not overtake or attack anybody. It is a development and is always preceded by a more or less lengthy period of preparation, during which hygienic errors are repeated and their effects accumulated, even if slightly counterbalanced by strong resistance.

A physician said to a mother, after examining her child: "Oh, your child is all right. I find no trace of disease. It is true he is a little underweight, pale, stoop-shouldered, listless, has bad teeth and poor eyes, a muddy complexion, and catches cold easily, but I can find no disease in him. His tonsils are a little large. We will cut these out and he will outgrow the other troubles."

But he will not outgrow the other troubles. Unless their causes are removed, they will outgrow him. It is necessary that we duly appreciate the importance of early departures from health and the causes of these departures. For, as Reinheimer remarks, "in these early stages of disease, which are so tangibly due to our indiscretions, lies the quiddity of disease in general. To understand the simple issues here involved is to perceive the secret of health and of natural immunity, regarding which subjects orthodox science is floundering in a bog."

The "common man," if he will but try, can soon understand the logic of the early forms of pathology. We shingle a house and in ten years the roof is rotten. We know that it did not rot all at once and suddenly, but that the shingles rotted day-by-day slowly through the years. Just so it is with the development of pathology; from small beginnings it slowly evolves into formidable states.

The early stage is a period of small warnings. Sir James MacKenzie, British clinician, who attempted to interest his profession in the study of early departures from ideal health, says, "The first appearance of disease in the human body is invariably insidious, with little disturbance of the economy and no visible signs of its presence. By and by the patient becomes conscious that all is not well with him; there is less of that feeling of well-being which accompanies the healthy state Disagreeable sensations arise, at first vague, but later becoming more definite, and these may become so urgent that he seeks advice. Still no evident sign of disease may be perceived on the most careful examination. By and by, the disease, being situated in some organ or tissue, changes the constitution of that part, so that its presence is now recognized by a physical sign, when the clinical methods usually employed reveal its character."

Long before the physical signs, of which MacKenzie speaks, become recognizable, there is headache, anorexia, nausea, vomiting dyspepsia, diarrhea, constipation, neuralgia, flabby muscles, colitis, skin eruptions, nose breathing, colds, decay of teeth, spinal curvature, flat feet, visual defects, anemia, asthma, sallow complexion, etc., the real cause and significance of which are not fully appreciated, which herald the gradual deterioration of the body. These "minor ailments" are early evidences of the beginning of pathology.

The individual imagines he is healthy. His physician may examine him and tell him that he is all right, that all of his organs are sound, and yet, the condition that is later to manifest itself by physical signs and symptoms is developing. From this class of "healthy" individuals gradually emerges the many cases of advanced "organic disease." These "pre-clinical" stages are the most important stages in the development of such conditions as cancer, insanity, paralysis, paresis, locomotor ataxia, Bright's disease, diabetes, "diseases" of the heart and arteries, cirrhosis of the liver or kidneys, etc. If these "pre-clinical" stages are prevented the advanced stages will not develop.

There is no possibility of learning causation so long as pathology ignores all origins; so long as we ignore the early forms and manifestations of "disease." "Mighty oaks from little acorns grow" in pathology as in the forest. Every symptom and every local pathology has its pedigree ; every affection has its parentage.

To fully understand the continuity of causation and the orderly succession of forms in pathological evolution, it is essential that we go back to ultimate sources to the absolute and radical causes that cooperate to produce the pathology. The "innumerable mysteries of disease", which we so often hear about from medical sources, are due chiefly to dereliction on the part of medical savants, who are engaged in mystery-mongering instead of truth seeking. They go also to the dead and dying in search of cause. It should be known that no amount of critical studies and examinations of end-results will reveal causes. The firmer our grasp of the principle of continuity the more must we allow to the original causes of the simplest pathology.

We have previously shown that the traditional demarcation between normal and abnormal does not exist and that the physiological behavior stigmatized as abnormal is but the outgrowth and dramatic exaggeration of the physiological behavior conventionally honored as normal, and that the familiar antithesis between health and "disease" loses its raison de' etre. If once this fact can be recognized by the reader, the old troglodite conception of "disease" as an entity at war with life will fade into a well-deserved oblivion.

Pathology is due to a loss of normals and these depend upon good behavior in its broadest sense. Pathology has a beginning somewhere and that beginning is in maladaptation; in adaptation that is in opposition to the highest interest of life. In other words, all pathology arises from ascertainable departures from bionomic ideals.

We quail before the idea of a reign of law in pathological evolution, and often style ourselves the "rebels of nature", a mere connivance at indulgence rather than an effort to subordinate wayward instincts to control." But we find, that though her retributive processes may frequently be veiled from our eyes, yet in one way or another transgressions against her laws are always brought to book by nature. We don't like to look the facts of pathological evolution and its causes in the face, but prefer to deceive ourselves and postpone, if we can, the consequences of our misdeeds until they culminate in Bright's disease, or cancer. As Henry Drummond has it, we run an account with retribution and delay the reckoning time with God. But every day is reckoning day and only the foolish will cheat themselves in trying to cheat nature.

Health is wholeness--integrity; pathology is a loss of integrity. It is primarily due to failing cooperation and its consequent failure of support, hence, failure of strength and resistance. What tells most and is almost the essence of pathology is the loss of resisting power. Whether we deal with weather extremes, physical and emotional stresses, toxins, or parasites, the failure of resistance alone allows them to produce more than slight evanescent impairment to the functions and organs of the body.