Diathesis

Definition

• Diathesis is a bodily condition in which an individual is prone to suffer from some peculiar type of disease
• Some diathesis being acquired, others inherited
• Some are of a transient nature, some permanent.
• Temperament is physiological and diathesis pathological.

Diathesis should not be confounded with dyscrasia, which term  implies ” the immediate and peculiar effects of disease;” nor with cachexia, which expresses an extreme degree of bodily debility consequent upon advanced and severe dis- ease. In recapitulation, temperament implies health, diathesis a tendency to disease or perhaps a latent disease, while dyscrasia and cachexia are morbid conditions