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
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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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    and from the resulting general intoxication the general reaction follows. That tuberculin is a primary toxic tubercle poison is proved by the action of Landmann's [17] Tuberculol, of which a dose of 1 c.c. kills a healthy guinea-pig of 250 grm. weight. But tuberculin differs from the true primary toxins in that it is unable to cause formation of antibodies in a healthy organism. Nevertheless, the idea of a primary toxic action to explain tuberculin reaction is justified, as Pickert [18] and Lowenstein [19] proved in the serum of tubercular patients treated with old tuberculin the presence of specific substances (anticutins) which neutralize the action of tuberculin on the skin. The nature of these anticutins is at present quite unknown ; their presence was also proved by Hamburger, v. Monti, White, Graham, and others. It is certain that, in addition, other antibodies may arise after tuberculin injections. Ruppel and Rickmann [20] have proved that the serum of immunized animals not only neutralizes tuberculin, but even renders tubercle bacilli non-toxic. And quite lately Abderhalden has shown that blood-plasma of tuber- cular patients, in contrast with that of normal individuals, can decompose peptone extracted from tubercle bacilli. -- , While Hertwig explained the tuberculin ivieyer and . . , . . ... r . reaction on the basis of the condition of Schmitz. the ieucocyteSj p. Meyer and K. Schmitz [21] have recently found in the red blood corpuscles of tubercular animals a reactionary body, which, after corresponding com- bination with tuberculin, forms toxic substances. These authors explain the tuberculin reaction as follows : The injected tuber- culin is taken up by the erythrocytes and carried to the focus, where the first and strongest receptors for tuberculin—the anti- tuberculin of Wassermann—are found. These receptors exert, after the injection, a great attractive irritation on the blood corpuscles containing tuberculin and thus cause the hyperasmia of the focus and the focal reaction. Simultaneously the toxin set free by the union of receptor with tuberculin causes the general reaction. The repeated injection of small amounts of tuberculin leads to the formation of increasing quantities of toxin, to which the body replies with insensitiveness, possibly brought about by formation of the antitoxins. 3.—THE AMBOCEPTOR THEORY OF WOLFF-EISNER. Wolff-Eisner [22] modified Wassermann's observation by substituting for tuberculin the bacterial bodies or the fragments of