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Repeating Histories
IN 1985 , when I was on sabbatical in Oxford, England, I had the op-
portunity to study the history of diet and disease at some of the great
medical history libraries in the Western world. I made use of the famous
Bodlean Library in Oxford and the London libraries of the Royal Col-
lege of Surgeons and the Imperial Cancer Research Fund. In the quiet
recesses of these marble-lined sanctuaries, I was thrilled to find authors
who wrote eloquently on the topic of diet and cancer, among other dis-
eases, over 150 years ago.
One such author was George Macilwain, who wrote fourteen books
on medicine and health. Macilwain was born and raised in Northern
Ireland. He later moved to London where he became a prominent sur-
geon in the early 1800s. He was to become a member, and later, an hon-
orary fellow, of the Royal College of Surgeons. He became vegetarian at
the age of forty, after identifying "grease, fat and alcohol" as being the
chief causes of cancer.l Macilwain also popularized the theory of the
"constitutional nature of disease," mostly in reference to the origins and
treatment of cancer.
The constitutional nature of disease concept meant that disease is not
the result of one organ, one cell or one reaction gone awry or the result
of one external cause acting independently. It is the result of multiple
systems throughout the body breaking down. Opposing this view was the
local theory of disease, which said that disease is caused by a single
external agent acting at a specific site in the body. At that time, a fierce
fight was under way between those who believed in diet and those who343