Definition

A disease that is known by a persistent tendency for an increase in the white corpuscles. There are also enlargements of the spleen and lymphatic glands.

Etiology

Leading authorities declare that there is nothing known about the condition under which the disease arises. It can be safely said, however, that the exciting cause may be an injury; but without constitutional toxin poisoning, with lymphatic involvement, the disease cannot be developed.

Symptoms

The disease comes on gradually. The first thing to arouse attention will be a rather enlarged abdomen, with a growing pallor of the surface of the body. The doctor is usually consulted to give his opinion in regard to what causes the abdomen to enlarge. In these days of much operating for tumors, people are fearful of tumors, and if the abdomen shows any enlargement, the average individual is not happy about it until he gets an opinion of his case.

Along with the enlargement of the abdomen there is a shortness of breath, or what might be better described as a feeling of precordial oppression, due to oxygen starvation. The more the blood becomes involved, the fewer blood corpuscles there are to carry the oxygen. Many cases are troubled with nose-bleeding. The primary cause being toxin infection, the cause of the toxin infection takes us back to intestinal putrefaction. Food decomposes in the alimentary canal, and there is enough irritation, inflammation, and ulceration in the stomach and duodenum to cause leukemia. The colon is affected with chronic inflammation and more or less ulceration. This state of the alimentary canal exists in many other chronic diseases; so the question naturally arises: Why does it develop in one person as leukemia, in another as Hodgkin's disease, and in another as chlorosis, etc., etc.? The reason for the development of these varying affections cannot be accounted for other than that heredity or diathesis governs types. Families have lived for a number of generations in a given manner, and the tendency has been to evolve a predisposition to take on special diseases. Those who have lived in a malarial country have evolved a diathesis which proves to be favorable for the development of leukemia.

Before leukemia develops there is always a lymphatic derangement. The lymphatics in the groins and in different parts of the body enlarge, because they are the storehouses for the arrest and detention of toxins.

Cases of chlorosis have been known to have fatal hemorrhage before the disease had advanced to the point where it could be diagnosed as leukemia. The pulse is usually rapid, soft, and compressible; and at the same time it will be full in volume. Toward the close of the disease dropsical effusions develop, which may end in general anasarca.

Hemorrhages of different organs are of frequent occurrence. The disease known as purpura hemorrhagica is common.

Treatment

The patient is fortunate if living in a warm country where he can stay out-of-doors all the time. The eating must be corrected: fresh fruit and vegetables principally; no meat, and a very limited supply of wholewheat bread and the decidedly starchy foods, such as navy beans, potatoes, corn bread, etc. These foods should not be given oftener than once a day, with a combination salad and cooked, non-starchy vegetables. The other two meals should be fruit.