The suppression of tuberculosis : together with Observations concerning phthisiogenesis in man and animals and Suggestions concerning the hygiene of cow stables and the production of milk for infant feeding, with special reference to tuberculosis / by Professor E. von Behring ... authorized translation by Charles Bolduan, M.D.

Emil von Behring

Date:: 1904

Credit: The suppression of tuberculosis : together with Observations concerning phthisiogenesis in man and animals and Suggestions concerning the hygiene of cow stables and the production of milk for infant feeding, with special reference to tuberculosis / by Professor E. von Behring ... authorized translation by Charles Bolduan, M.D. 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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are then separated by centrifuge and can be exam- ined directly in microscopical preparations. With, the aid of this very valuable diagnostic method we are enabled to demonstrate the tubercular origin of almost all serous pleurisies, of many exudative peritonites, of accumulations of fluid in the peri- toneal cavity of alcoholic individuals with liver cirrhosis, of joint inflammations, of exudative meningites, of many cases of heart-disease and of other classes of symptomatic affections, where formerly most physicians did not think of the pos- sibility of these affections being tubercular. I cannot fail to express my conviction of the general diffusion of tuberculosis in densely crowded populations, and of the consequent futility of all attempts to suppress the disease by means of isolation and segregation. What would be the outcome if we were to adopt the suggestion seriously put forth, to send all the tubercularly infected soldiers to hospitals, later discharging them as unfit for service? We should not have more than 5% left for active service, and even this small number would probably after the lapse of a few years be declared tuberculous. At the most I can assent only to the separation of the coughing consumptive from the apparently healthy individual; and these should be sent, not to sanitaria [Heil- stätten], but to homestead colonies [Heimstätten] such as we formerly maintained for lepers. We need not, however, idly fold our hands and

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