466 TUBERCULOSIS. 



organisms which were used for the experiment. That such a 

 metamorphosis is easily produced in rabbits and guinea-pigs is a 

 fact which has been well known for a long time. 



I abstain from drawing conclusions concerning the therapy 

 of tubercle. For in the question of tubercle it is doubtless Vir- 

 chow's greatest merit that he has accurately denned the aims of 

 therapy, namely : . " the removal of the disposition and the avoid- 

 ance of all obnoxious irritation." 



To my assertions made in 1874 I have but little to add. Since 

 that time I have examined with the microscope a large number 

 of different organs affected with tuberculosis, and have no alter- 

 ation to make in my previous statements. More than this, I have 

 become acquainted with the anatomical features characteristic of 

 tuberculosis, recognizable not only in single pus-corpuscles, but, 

 from the peculiar aspect of the colorless blood-corpuscles, in every 

 fresh drop of blood. (See page 58.) 



There is a want of living matter, and to this deficiency can be 

 traced all the features observed in scrofulous and tuberculous 

 individuals. This involves the peculiarity that such persons are 

 easily attacked by inflammation in general, and especially by 

 " catarrhal n inflammation of the mucous membranes. This in- 

 cludes also an incapacity for reproducing blood-vessels destroyed 

 in the inflammatory new formation of medullary elements. Blood- 

 vessels being at first solid, bulky cords of bioplasson, which in a 

 latter stage are hollowed out, cannot be reproduced in certain 

 inflamed districts, and by this fact a clear understanding of the 

 puzzle termed tuberculosis is made evident to our minds. Dyscra- 

 sia, diathesis, disposition, and kindred expressions, filling medical 

 literature and representing medical wisdom, deserve to be aban- 

 doned. For we have something positive, something that every 

 one can comprehend ; we have facts replacing all former vague 

 ideas expressed by a fanciful nomenclature. 



Scrofulosis and tuberculosis are constitutional diseases. Want 

 of living matter causes these and many kindred diseases, as, 

 f. i., caries of the bones, lupus, etc. Unfortunately, I have not 

 yet learned how to improve a person's constitution, how to increase 

 his living matter. Could we but do that, we might also extinguish 

 forever the misery produced by these constitutional diseases 

 which sweep away thousands of victims. Generations are sacri- 

 ficed to an irrational mode of living, to an irrational waste of 

 living matter, in excesses of all kinds. 



