Main description:

Originally published in 1915, this book gathers together a collection of papers on tuberculosis by the renowned British epidemiologist Arthur Ransome (1834-1922). The papers approach the subject from a number of different viewpoints, encompassing both scientific and public health perspectives, and draw on Ransome's experience of more than fifty years fighting tuberculosis. Illustrative figures and notes are also incorporated within the text. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in tuberculosis and the history of medicine.

Contents:

Part I. General: 1. Consumption: its causes and its prevention; 2. On the prevention of consumption; 3. Consumption, a 'filth disease'; 4. A crusade against tuberculosis; 5. The need of a standard of efficient ventilation in all workplaces and places of public assembly; 6. Duties of the state in regard to tuberculosis; 7. The need of co-ordination of anti-tuberculosis measures; Part II. Conditions of Infection: 1. On the limits of infection by phthisis; 2. The susceptibility of tuberculosis under different conditions; 3. On certain bodily conditions resisting phthisis; Section III. Researches: 1. The influence of iodoform on the body-weight in phthisis; 2. On intrapulmonary injections; 3. Notes on the treatment of phthisis by pure oxygen and ozonised oxygen; 4. On certain conditions that modify the virulence of the bacillus of tubercle; 5. On re-infection in phthisis; 6. On certain media for the cultivation of the bacillus of tubercle; 7. The tubercle bacillus as a saprophyte; Section IV. Chiefly Statistical: 1. Some evidence respecting tubercular infective areas; 2. Tuberculosis and leprosy: a parallel and a prophecy; 3. The prospect of abolishing tuberculosis; 4. The public-house as a source of phthisis; 5. Phthisis-rates: their significance and their teaching; Appendix I; Appendix II; Index.