LOBAR PNEUMONIA IN CHILDHOOD; ROENTGEN-RAY FINDINGS AND AN EXPLANATION OF BRONCHIAL SIGNS.

During the past two years all cases of lobar pneumonia on the Children's Service at the Presbyterian Hospital have been roentgenographed at least once. In those cases showing a shadow, but in which bronchial voice and breathing were not heard, repeated roentgenograms were taken at varying intervals. The purpose of these examinations was to ascertain whether the consolidation as evidenced by this shadow passes through any regular development, and if so, whether the different stages of its progress can be correlated with the development of certain physical signs.

Most textbooks have little to say regarding the site of the early consolidation in lobar pneumonia, or the way it spreads, nor do the books on physical diagnosis correlate the development of the physical signs with the conditions in the chest. When the signs which are considered diagnostic of consolidation appear late or are entirely absent, we find the term "central pneumonia"