ABSTRACT

The traditional line of inquiry in the study of disease has been to seek ultimate causes. In the sixteenth century, Jean Fernel wrote, “Misbalance of the Constitution is the illness, yet the cause is the practical point. There are causes we do not know” (Sherrington, 1946). The concept of “cause” has undergone radical change from era to era in medicine until today the search for a single cause has been all but abandoned. In its place we have the currently popular concept of multicausality of diseases, something resembling Fernel’s “misbalance.” It recognizes that the number of ways things can go wrong is less than the number of things that can perturb the bodily economy. It also takes into account the myriad regulatory mechanisms of the body, disruptions of which are manifested as diseases (Wolf, 1963).