[A dispute about the concept of 'disease' in Dutch Journal of Medicine, 1863].
Professor Schrant, in his inaugural lecture held in Leiden in 1862, brought under discussion the views held at that time about the concept of 'disease'. These were determined on the one hand by empiricism, experience gained at the bedside and the dissecting table, and on the other by the 'ontological disease concept' which saw disease as an autonomous being with characteristic properties. Schrant, however, regarded diseases as a physiological experiment happening by coincidence, as an 'abnormal way of life of the animal body'. This view was criticized in the Nederlandsch Tijdschrift voor Geneeskunde by, among others, the pathologist Koster in Utrecht, who wished to regard disease as an abstraction, a concept required to designate a group of symptoms and organic alterations by a single word. Assigning the concept of disease its own identity alarmed him. At present the discussion is not closed, but owing to the stormy developments in diagnostics and treatment in medical practice there is no longer leisure for medical-philosophical discussions.
Luyendijk-Elshout
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D004194:Disease; D049672:History, 19th Century; D009426:Netherlands; D010506:Periodicals as Topic / Q000266:history; D010686:Philosophy, Medical / Q000266:history*