The Ypsilanti daily press. (Ypsilanti, Mich.) 1928-1962, 1944-12-07

tionaI tuberculosis Association.
DR.. Clendening will answer
questions Of general interest
only, and then only through
his column.
The income from the sale Of these
seals goes to promote the work
which is making this disease dis
appear from our civilization. That
it is actually doing this is abund-
antly proved by statistics.
1t has been a long fight and
there is a long continuous fight
ahead Of US for so years. But we
have the guns and the means to
gain the victory. We would like
everybody to have the satisfaction
Of having a share: so buy the
Christmas seals. They won't break
you. II every home in America
bought a dollars worth it would
60 a long way
| say We have the guns, the
means, the weapons now in our
hands to eliminate the disease. The
difficulties are that it takes time
and that people are not alert to
the possibilities of danger. What
our present program requires is
that every person who has tuber-
culosis must be detected, diagnosed
and treated. That means that
every person must be examined. 1t
is called the case-fnding program,
and, as can be imagined is not easy
because it depends upon the entire,
cooperation of the populace.
Diagnosis of tuberculosis
Our ideas of the best way of dag
nosis of tuberculosis have entire
ly changed in the last % years and
today make up a much simpler pro-
cedure. Briefly, it is to take an
Xray of the chest. This, Of course,
detects only tuberculosis in the
lungs. tuberculosis occurs in other
organs, but it is only tuberculosis
Of the lungs that is the contagious
form-the spreader Of the disease.
SO those are the cases we want to
find.
The story of diagnosis Of tuber-
culosis is a romantic chapter in
the history of science. Only little
over a hundred years ago, there
was no objective way Of determin-
ing its presence. AL the doctors
could do was guess from symp-
toms. And symptoms are motor
iously misleading in this disease.
Then a young Austrian, named
Auenbruegger, the son Of an inn
keeper, remembered that his
father used to slap his barrels Of
wine to tell how full they were.
The chest is a good deal like bar
rel, so Auenbruegger, when he be-
came a doctor, slapped, tapped or
percussed chests and could tell
whether they were sound and air
filled or infiltrated with solidihca-
tions. That was the first step in
objective diagnosis something
that could be determined by the
physician himself.
Discovery of Stethoseope
Then young Frenchman,
named Laennec, had the inspira-
ton from seeing children in the
park telegraphing pin scratches
along a seesaw board, Of rolling up
a sheet of paper and putting one
end on the chest of a patient and
the other end to his ear. This re-
suited in the stethescope, which
detects plenty Of objective signs in
the chest and lungs.
Then Koch, a country practi-
toner Of Wollstein in East Prus-
STA, found that by special staining
methods one could detect the per-
fectly characteristic germ of tu-
berculosis in the sputum of the
affected patient.
All these methods are still USE
full and used, but they have some
faults from the standpoint of tu-
berculosis up to date. Briefly, the
faults are that they detect late
cases readily, early cases with I'M
certainty. Because the disease may
be deep and be silent many cases
are missed entirely.
The Xray Of the chest makes the
diagnosis with proper interpreta-
ton in nearly 100 per cent Of
cases. 1t can be done on large
numbers Of people rapidly with
very little expense. For case find
ing in large groups it is by all
means the best method. Il is the
major weapon Of diagnosis in our
grim warfare against this ancient
enemy.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
NJ. D.:-You have recommend
ed liver extract for pernicious
anemia. What is the effect of ven
triculin in pernicious anemia?
Answer: Ventriculin works Just
ag well AZ livpr avtract -, 49,.