Tuberculin in diagnosis and treatment : a text-book of the specific diagnosis and therapy of tuberculosis for practitioners and students / By Dr. Bandelier ... and Dr. Roepke.

  • Bandelier, B. (Bruno), 1871-1924.
Date:
1913
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Tuberculin in diagnosis and treatment : a text-book of the specific diagnosis and therapy of tuberculosis for practitioners and students / By Dr. Bandelier ... and Dr. Roepke. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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    reactive processes in the general changes occurring in the tuber- cular organism. , The greatest notice, although criticism was Wassermanns both favourable and unfavourable, was Theory. taken of Wassermann's ingenious theory of the occurrence and absence of the tuberculin reaction. With the help of fixation of complement, Wassermann and Bruck [5] succeeded in proving the presence of dissolved products of metabolism of the tubercle bacilli and of their antibodies (anti- tuberculin) as reaction-products in extracts of tubercular organs prepared by trituration. These antibodies, by virtue of their avidity for com- bination with antigen, extract the whole quantity of tuberculin injected from the blood and concentrate it in the tubercular focus. In the union of the antigen (tuberculin) with its antibody (anti- tuberculin) complement is fixed; consequently there takes place in the tubercular focus an increase of those elements (leucocytes, ferments) which possess protein digesting properties, leading thus to softening of the tubercular tissues. This is the chain of events in a tuberculin focal reaction; it is usually accompanied by fever, which is then the result of the absorption of softened tubercular tissue. Christian and Wassermann's theory is corroborated by ,_, , 1 .» the observations of Christian and Rosenblat Rosenblat s r_-. _, , , T . , , _ . . 6 , at Rubner s institute: they found that Experiments in . J , , , . , . , ' , u ~ in tubercular animals which have been Hxation ot injected with tubercle-bacillary prepara- Complement. tions, an increase of antibodies causing fixation of complement and simultaneously a rise of the agglutinating power of the blood takes place. While the agglutinins of tubercle bacilli, which are not identical with the antibodies, arise in the normal cells of the haematopoietic organs, the complement binding , tubercular antibody is exclusively formed in tubercular tissue. The occur- rence of these bodies in the serum does not produce immunitv from tuberculosis, but is its sign. This agrees with the fact that Wassermann, Bruck, Citron, Liidke, R. Kraus and others also proved the presence of antibody in tubercular patients treated with tuberculin, the antibody causing fixation of complement in the serum and in the tubercular foci. According to our own researches, this takes place frequently, but not always. ..... This theory explains the reduced or even obliterated reactivity of the tuberculinized