Abstract
AN important paper by Prof. Georges Dreyer, of Oxford, in the last number of the British Journal of Experimental Pathology has been the subject of widespread comment, as, apparently, it is likely to inaugurate a new era in the specific treatment of infective disease, and particularly of tuberculosis. It is a matter of common knowledge that the “tuberculins” hitherto employed have not been completely successful against the highly resistant bacillus of tuberculosis. Dreyer's main thesis-and it is supported by a mass of accurate experimental evidence-is that the relative failure of certain AN important paper by Prof. Georges Dreyer, of Oxford, in the last number of the British Journal of Experimental Pathology has been the subject of widespread comment, as, apparently, it is likely to inaugurate a new era in the specific treatment of infective disease, and particularly of tuberculosis. It is a matter of common knowledge that the “tuberculins” hitherto employed have not been completely successful against the highly resistant bacillus of tuberculosis. Dreyer's main thesis-and it is supported by a mass of accurate experimental evidence-is that the relative failure of certain lipoids. The bulk of Dreyer's work refers to tubercle bacillus, and there can be no doubt that, so far as this microbe is concerned, he has proved his point experimentally. From his protocols he appears to have done what has not been done before, namely, the arrest, clinical and histological, of tubercle in guinea - pigs. It has always been felt that any method which could bring this about offered great hopes in the treatment of tuberculosis. It is necessary, however, at this stage to adopt an attitude of caution as regards the treatment of human pulmonary tuberculosis, for it will be a long time, probably years, before the full value of the method can be assessed.
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Current Topics and Events. Nature 111, 853–857 (1923). https://doi.org/10.1038/111853a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/111853a0