Is the Vital Capacity an AId in the Diagnosis of Hilum Gland Tuberculosis?

The diagnosis of hilum gland tuberculosis is at best a difficult one to make. The physical signs are usually conspicuous by their absence except in the far advanced cases, and, despite the various signs and symptoms that have been described by different authors as diagnostic of this condition, the fact remains that in the vast majority of cases these are not present and when present are far from being pathognomonic. This paper is a preliminary report on the question as to whether or not the vital capacity is an aid in the diagnosis of tracheobronchial tuberculosis. The term vital capacity is one used to indicate the amount of air one can expire after the deepest possible inspiration. John Hutchinson, an English surgeon, first used the term vital capacity about eighty years ago; he made extensive observations on this subject but did not make any special claims for the importance of