On the pathological and practical relations of the doctrine of the bacillus tuberculosis / by Austin Flint.

  • Flint, Austin, 1812-1886.
Date:
[1884]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the pathological and practical relations of the doctrine of the bacillus tuberculosis / by Austin Flint. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    by means of inhalation. The first is to discover the particular parasiticide. This difficulty applies alike to both methods of effecting the destruction of the parasite by direct contact. Of the different infec- tious diseases supposed to depend on the presence of micro-organisms, each has its own parasiticide. Mercury, for example, is an effective agent in cases of syphilis, but it has no effect upon malarial disease; and the specific agent for the latter is without effect in syphilis. For most of the infectious diseases, the specific curative agents remain to be ascertained. The second difficulty in the way of the direct de- struction of the parasite by means of inhalation is, that the agent for its destruction, inhaled in the form of either an impalpable powder, a vapor, or a gas, is not likely to reach the colonies of bacilli in sufficient quantity to effect the object. The* third difficulty is, that gi parasiticide brought into direct contact with the bacilli by means of inhalation, in sufficient quantity to destroy them, is likely to in- jure the tissues, or, by passing into the blood, to induce toxaemia. The two last-named difficulties do not apply to the introduction of parasiticides into the blood. It remains to be ascertained by experimental obser- vations which, as yet, are but commenced, whether a parasiticide can be found capable of effecting the first object in the treatment, namely, the direct de- struction of the parasite, by means of either its inhala- tion or its introduction into the circulation. That this object may be effected, is by no means beyond the limits of possibility, nor, perhaps, of probability. For this we must wait patiently. Meanwhile, the ■second object in the treatment, namely, the removal of the conditions on which the parasite depends for its existence, is not to be overlooked, nor under- valued. Let it be borne in mind that the continuance, as well as the origin, of pulmonary phthisis, depehds on two factors—the presence of bacilli and the con-