On the nature, action, and therapeutic value of the active principles of tuberculin : an investigation / by William Hunter.

  • Hunter, William, 1861-1937.
Date:
1891
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the nature, action, and therapeutic value of the active principles of tuberculin : an investigation / by William Hunter. 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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    my own part I conclude from a study of the action of C B as well as of B, that the good results of tuberculin can be obtained with smaller doses, administered preferably ac- cording to Mr. Cheyne’s plan, twice or thrice daily. In this way the dose (of the modified material) need rarely exceed 20 milligrammes at a time. The last point I would notice is the mode of action of the remedial substance on tuberculous tissue. As regards the marked affinity it shows for tuberculous tissue, its action is I consider a truly specific one. It has been thought by some that any remedial action tuberculin possesses is due to its power of exciting local inflammation, and some support is lent to this view by the experience of Mr. Cheyne and many others, that the amount of improve- ment is proportional to the degree of inflammation initially set up. Some have even ascribed part of the beneficial result to the fever. The observations now recorded by Mr. Watson Cheyne and myself conclusively dispose of both these views, since they showT that improvement— sometimes indeed to a very marked degree—may occur independent of either fever or inflammation. As to the nature of its action, Koch has described it as a “necrosis,” the tuberculous tissue being so acted upon as to become “necrotic.” I consider the use of these terms most unfortunate and inapt. The changes in lupus after the administration of large doses are certainly suffi- ciently pronounced to be well described by these terms. I do not regard these changes, however, as representing the normal mode of action of tuberculin, any more than I should regard convulsions as representing the action of medicinal doses of strychnine. With tuberculin, as with strychnine and other poisons, there is a medicinal as well as a poisonous action according to the dose given, and I regard necrotic changes to be amongst the effects of