The actual position of the tuberculosis problem to-day : being address delivered by request at the conference of the National Association for the Prevention of Tuberculosis at Birmingham, July, 1923 / by Sir Robert Philip, M.D., LL.D., President of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, Professor of Tuberculosis in the University of Edinburgh.

  • Philip, Robert William, Sir, 1857-1939
Date:
[1924?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The actual position of the tuberculosis problem to-day : being address delivered by request at the conference of the National Association for the Prevention of Tuberculosis at Birmingham, July, 1923 / by Sir Robert Philip, M.D., LL.D., President of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, Professor of Tuberculosis in the University of Edinburgh. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    This does not mean that attention is not to be directed to limitation of sources of infection. Quite the reverse. The value of endeavour in that direction has been accentuated by a generation of observers in the sphere alike of human and of veterinary pathology. It is voiced in sound anti-tuberculosis schemes by arrangements for the segregation of advanced cases. It can hardly be emphasized over much in relation to the milk supply of the country. As a matter of practical politics, however, the tuberculous seed is too abundant to justify the hope that meantime we can expect to exclude infection altogether. Assuming that, under existing conditions of civilization, most individuals become tuberculized sooner or later, something may be said in favour of the contraction of infection in child¬ hood, provided that due attention is directed to the exact deter- urination of the advent of infection and provided that the results of infection are understood and anticipated. It must be recalled that individual members of primitive races, coming as adults for the first time into contact with civilization, are apt to develop tuberculosis in aggravated, often acutely fatal form. In other words, what we may term “infantile” tuberculosis, when acquired in adult life, is of much graver portent than when it occurs in childhood. Limitation of Results of Infection. What then should be our present practical outlook? We may assume that the child, under existing conditions, will become inoculated with tuberculosis sooner or later. The occurrence should be watched for bv parent and doctor, who must be trained to interpret its meaning and bearings. The occurrence should be recorded with exactness, and appropriate measures adopted to develop and increase natural resistance. Recurrent ailments and obscure conditions of ill health should be considered in the light which the fact of infection affords. The natural history of the disease—the remarkable variation of incident—requires to be better appre¬ hended by all who have responsible charge of child life, if there