PREEXISTING • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Preexisting

... change produced in living things in consequence of which they are no longer in harmony with their environment." It is evident that this conception of disease is inseparable from the idea of life, since only a living thing can become diseased. In any dead body there has been a preexisting disease or injury, and, in consequence of the change produced, that particular form of activity which constitutes life has ceased. Changes such as putrefaction take place in the dead body, but they are changes which would take ...

— Disease and Its Causes • William Thomas Councilman