Tuberculosis Problem: some observations on the present-day outlook, with special reference to the etiology, epidemology, prophylaxis and treatment of phthisis in the Western highlands and the Isles

Abstract

The evidence afforded, by statistics can leave us no doubt as to the importance of Tuberculosis as a factor operating to the detriment of communal welfare. A somewhat similar nosition with regard to the problem exists in the majority of European countries and in the United States of America. Tt will now be found appropriate to discuss, more intimately, the basic elements of the problem and the principles underlying our modern system of treatment and prevention.The experience of half a century has made it abundantly clear that infection in phthisis is an Intimate process, involving the close proximity of donor and recipient. In the human family, the infection, once acquired, takes up an almost unassailable position. An endo-parasite in the strictest sense, it may lie latent for years before reasserting its virulence in yet another member of the family circle. The classical fallacy of "hereditary" consumption admits of a rational interpretation when the fact is recognised that tuberculous infection, if not as the blood that flows in its victims' veins, is certainly as the air they breathe