#The clinical features# of surgical tuberculosis will be described with the individual tissues and organs, as they vary widely according to the situation of the lesion.

#The general treatment# consists in combating the adverse influences that have been mentioned as increasing the liability to tuberculous infection.  Within recent years the value of the “open-air” treatment has been widely recognised.  An open-air life, even in the centre of a city, may be followed by marked improvement, especially in the hospital class of patient, whose home surroundings tend to favour the progress of the disease.  The purer air of places away from centres of population is still better; and, according to the idiosyncrasies of the individual patient, mountain air or that of the sea coast may be preferred.  In view of the possible discomforts and gastric disturbance which may attend a sea-voyage, this should be recommended to patients suffering from tuberculous lesions with more caution than has hitherto been exercised.  The diet must be a liberal one, and should include those articles which are at the same time easily digested and nourishing, especially proteids and fats; milk obtained from a reliable source and underdone butcher-meat are among the best.  When the ordinary nourishment taken is insufficient, it may be supplemented by such articles as malt extract, stout, and cod-liver oil.  The last is specially beneficial in patients who do not take enough fat in other forms.  It is noteworthy that many tuberculous patients show an aversion to fat.

For the use of tuberculin in diagnosis and for the vaccine treatment of tuberculosis the reader is referred to text-books on medicine.

In addition to increasing the resisting power of the patient, it is important to enable the fluids of the body, so altered, to come into contact with the tuberculous focus.  One of the obstacles to this is that the focus is often surrounded by tissues or fluids which have been almost entirely deprived of bactericidal substances.  In the case of caseated glands in the neck, for example, it is obvious that the removal of this inert material is necessary before the tissues can be irrigated with fluids of high bactericidal value.  Again, in tuberculous ascites the abdominal cavity is filled with a fluid practically devoid of anti-bacterial substances, so that the bacilli are able to thrive and work their will on the tissues.  When the stagnant fluid is got rid of by laparotomy, the parts are immediately douched with lymph charged with protective substances, the bactericidal power of which may be many times that of the fluid displaced.

It is probable that the beneficial influence of counter-irritants, such as blisters, and exposure to the Finsen light and other forms of rays, is to be attributed in part to the increased flow of blood to the infected tissues.