Health

(helth.) [Ger. heil.] The state of body or mind opposed to Disease. To define H. is not le difficult than to define disease. If all the ti ues and organs of the body have their normal integrity and properties, if the fluids of the body are in no respect abnormal, if all the functions of the organism are completely and harmoniously performed, H. undoubtedly exists. But this perfection of H. is purely ideal; it never actually exists. An examination of the bodies of the healthiest persons would probably reveal lesions of some kind; certain deviations from the normal composition of the different fluids are not inconsistent with the evidences of H. in other respects; functions of different parts may be disordered to a certain extent without sufficient disturbance to constitute disease. Graduations of H. are implied in the qualifications of this term in common use. If the term H. expre ed a well-defined state, it would be a pleonasm to add to the term, as is often done, the adjectives good, excellent, & c.; and,on the other hand, to speak of H. as poor, bad, miserable, & c., would involve a solecism. In short, H. and disease are so imperceptibly merged into each other, that the line of demarcation cannot be drawn with precision. [s. 444]