Other diseases than the infectious seem to be inherited, of which gout is an example.

In gout there is an unusual action of the cells of the body which leads to the formation and the retention in the body of substances which are injurious.

Here it is not the disease which is inherited, but the variation in structure to which the unusual and injurious action of the cells is due.
While tuberculosis and gout represent instances in which, although the disease itself is not inherited yet the presence of the disease in the ascendants so affects the germinal material that the offspring is more susceptible to these particular diseases, much more common are the cases in which disease in the parents produces a defective offspring, the defect consisting in a general loss of resistance manifested in a variety of ways, but not necessarily repeating the diseased condition of the parent.

In these cases the disease in the parents affects all the cells of the body including the germinal cells, and the defective qualities in the germ cells will affect the cells of the offspring which are derived from these.

There is a tendency in these cases to the repetition in the offspring of the disease of the parents, because the particular form of the parental disease may have been due to or influenced by variation of structure.