Although the incidence of tuberculosis in infancy and childhood and the usual types of the disease encountered in those age periods are referred to, the authors are concerned primarily with pulmonary tuberculosis in the adult. They emphasize, throughout, the importance of considering the patient as a whole in his emotional and intellectual acceptance of his infection and in relation to his socioeconomic background. The authors are respectively the senior physician and medical superintendent and the first assistant medical officer of the Tor-na-Dee Sanatorium.
After a brief review of the development of the understanding of tuberculosis and short chapters on the bacteriologic and pathologic factors of the disease, there is a detailed discussion of the taking of the history and of the physical and roentgenologic examination of the patient. The rationale of rest in bed is explained, and collapse therapy, or thoracoplasty, is considered in all phases, with many illustrative roentgenograms.