Tuberculin treatment / by Clive Riviere and Egbert Morland.

Date:
1912
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Tuberculin treatment / by Clive Riviere and Egbert Morland. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    trouble at intervals from infancy to adult life, and lupus be almost conterminous with the span of life itself. The question of indication is then ])rimarily the ques- tion of accurate diagnosis and prognosis in tubercular infection ; and since prognosis is so uncertain there is a wide indication for a method which can do no serious harm and may oftentimes spell a saved life or restored working efficiency. Analogy can be drawn with no other disease, for there is no other widespread infection so often missed in its early stage, which takes such heavy toll of this omission in later years. It is literally the old Roman decimation : one out of every ten lives must be sacrificed ; there is no certain indication on whom the lot will fall; but in our case amnesty can be claimed by any who have undergone a course of specific treat- ment. In the fight of these general considerations the indications may be stated thus : 1. Before symptoms occur ; where we must at once distinguish between {A) Non-infected, {B) Where infection has occurred but disease has not manifested itself. {A) Before infection has occurred would seem to be an ideal time for immunisation against tuberculosis. Meissen, in fact, in classifying tubercular patients allotted a special division to “prophylactics,” those who were dis- posed to the disease by nature or inheritance without having actually been infected, e.g. the children of tubercular parents. Sahli draws an analogy vdth in- oculation against smallpox. But unfortunately such
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