1890.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 4. 321 



TUBERCULOSIS. 



BY 1)R. WILLIAM HOLBROOK OI' PALMER. 



The history of tubercle runs back through the ages. 

 Isocrates, Avho lived in the fifth century before Christ, and 

 shortly preceded or was contemporary with Hippocrates, 

 who was called the " father of medicine," taught that con- 

 sumption was a contagious disease, but he had few folloAvers 

 in his belief; while Hippocrates, in his book, discoursed on 

 phthisis as an epidemic, believing the disease to be due to a 

 certain condition of the air, and evidently did not consider 

 it communicable from man to man, man to animals, or 

 animals to man, by contact or association. It was rather a 

 quality of the atmosphere or the breezes that affected the 

 people, than germs of the disease ; and his opinion pre- 

 vailed, or his theory was accepted, for many years. AVe 

 find thus early that doctors fiiiled to agree in regard to 

 disease, and have ofttimes since; or that there are two sides 

 to questions, each expressing honest opinions. 



What is a tubercle ? It is a tumor in the substance of an 

 organ, from the production of new matter. In pathologi- 

 cal anatomy, the term is generally given to a species of 

 degeneration which consists of an opaque matter of a pale 

 yellow color. This in its crude condition has a consistence 

 analogous to that of concrete albumen, and subsequently 

 becomes soft and friable, and gradually acquires a consistence 

 analogous to that of pus. Tubercles may develop in different 

 parts of the body, but most frequently in the lungs and one 

 of the coverings of the bowels. Laennec classes tubercles 

 among the accidental tissues, which never exist except in 

 consequence of morbid action ; while others consider them 

 as a scrofulous degeneration. 



