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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    patients not treated with tuberculin and also that of normal individuals may contain tuberculotropins. In slight cases they are found only in a relatively small percentage, in severe cases in the majority of patients. After treatment with bacillary emulsion these antibodies were relatively increased in all the sera examined. In confirmation of Bohme's results, Lowen- stein [19] proved that in clinically favour- able cases, even when treated with old tuberculin, no increase of these bodies occurs; they appear to be connected with the employ- ment of bacillary emulsion. Both authors agree, however, that there is no strict connec- tion between the course of the disease and the content of bacteriotropins. This is not so in the case of bacteriolysins. According to the experiments of R. Kraus and Hofer [49] (on the lines of the well- known researches of Pfeiffer) tubercle bacilli in the organism can be destroyed by bacteriolysis as well as by phagocytosis. The bacteriolytic bodies for tubercle bacilli are produced in increased quantities in the tubercular organism and their presence can be proved in the serum. This raised bacteriolytic power of tubercular patients helps to explain their immunity to re-infection. They command a greater supply of bacteriolysins compared with healthy individuals but less opsonins and bacteriotropins, as Wright has shown. Therefore in the healthy organism the chief role is played by phagocytosis, while in the tubercular bacterio- lysis is predominant in spontaneous healing and in immunizing processes. We have no very definite knowledge of the bacterio- lytic bodies, especially as the normal serum of man and animal has a certain bacteriolytic power. We know, however, that thev are present in increased amount in tubercular serum. Many clinical observations point to the fact that the bacterio- lytic resources of the organism are increased by specific treatment. Certain forms of the so-called reaction-fever, increase of sputum, disintegration of the tubercle bacilli, &c, are connected with it. Also Wolff-Eisner's and Sahli's explanation of the tuberculin reaction can be brought into line with it. (f) Complement-fixing Antibodies. Bauer and ^ie aPPearance °f the complement-fixing ,_ ., _ antibodies already mentioned in the blood of tnsrels HJesults .& . specifically treated tubercular patients seems in Children. to be of considerable significance. What Christian and Rosenblat [6] demonstrated in tubercular guinea-