CHAPTER V 



TUBERCULOSIS 



History. That the people of ancient Egypt were afflicted with 

 tuberculosis has been demonstrated by an examination of the bones of 

 mummies. We have no means of estimating the extent of this disease 

 among these people. The writings of the great Greek physician, Hip- 

 pocrates, show that he was quite familiar with various forms of tuber- 

 culosis. The period of the Roman and Byzantine Empires added noth- 

 ing to the knowledge of the ancients on this subject. During the 

 seventeenth and eighteenth centuries there was much discussion con- 

 cerning tuberculosis, but no experimental investigation into its nature. 



In the seventh decade of the nineteenth century, Villemin, who 

 should be regarded as the founder of modern knowledge of tubercu- 

 losis, conducted a series of exact experiments which settled for all 

 time disputes concerning the contagiousness of this disease. He inocu- 

 lated many and varied animals in diverse ways with the sputum and 

 other products from tuberculous lesions in men and cattle, and in 

 all developed tuberculosis. He established not only the unity of the 

 various (tuberculous manifestations in man but demonstrated the 

 existence of tuberculosis in cattle. He went further and showed that 

 certain nodular diseases, which had been confounded with tuberculosis, 

 were distinct from it. He found that the inoculation of animals with 

 other than tuberculous products did not lead to the development of 

 this disease. He overthrew the theory of heredity in this disease and 

 established the fact that it does not result from colds or other ills. 

 He went so far as to suggest house infection as an important factor 

 in the dissemination of the disease. Men who tried to contradict the 

 findings of Villemin experimentally, confirmed him in practically every 

 detail. 



In 1882, Koch, after long and patient studies succeeded in isolating 

 the specific bacillus, growing it in pure culture, and demonstrating its 

 pathogenicity. 



