To say that a neurotic subject is like a person with a retentive memory, or that a diathesis gradually acquired is like an over-mastering habit, is at all events to make comparisons with things that we all understand.
"Luck or Cunning?"
Samuel Butler
"Nervous diathesis," he observed.
"Hilda Wade A Woman With Tenacity Of Purpose"
Grant Allen
"But she didn't die of diathesis giving birth to the first of you," said Kate.
"A Daughter of the Land"
Gene Stratton-Porter