Book Description

Excerpt from Pulmonary Tuberculosis Recent research has also shown that infection with tubercle bacilli endows an organism with a certain degree of resistance, or even im munity, against further and renewed exogenic infection with the same virus. Experimental investigations have proved that it is impossible to reinfect a tuberculous animal with tubercle bacilli. Many clinical phenomena, which have hitherto baffled those who studied the disease, such as the rarity of conjugal phthisis, or of tuberculous disease in those living and working among phthisical patients, and of soldiers in the armies. Are now explained by this immunity of the tuberculous against reinfection with tubercle bacilli. Phthisis is at present considered a manifestation of immunity. Prophylaxis of infection has been shifted to the child, while that of phthisis involves more than prevention of infection. In the discussion of the clinical aspects of phthisis an attempt has been made to elaborate on the constitutional symptoms, which are still the sheet-anchor of the physician who is charged with deciding whether a patient is ill and in need of treatment. Bacteriology and serology are excellent helps in showing whether the patient has been infected with tubercle bacilli; skiagraphy reveals airless areas of lung tissue; but they do not give conclusive proof that the patient is sick and in need of prolonged and costly treatment. We also know that unity of causation is not always an indication of unity of resulting clinical phenomena in tuberculosis: The clinical picture of tuberculosis in infants is different from that in children; in adults some, irrespective of the treatment applied, show a marked tendency to sclerosis or fibrosis of the lesion; in others caseation and destruction of lung tissue go on progressively; in still others there is a sluggish course, marked by periods of illness alternating with periods of comparative comfort. For these reasons several types of the disease, or syndromes, have been described, each of which has not only a different clinical course, but also a different outlook as to recovery, and the treatment differs markedly in each form of the disease. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.