How Do Rest and Collapse Treatment Cure Pulmonary Tuberculosis?

The basic principle in the treatment of tuberculosis in all its forms is rest. In tuberculosis of the lungs or of the joints the physician endeavors to obtain as complete a rest as possible of the diseased organs. More especially in pulmonary tuberculosis, complete and prolonged bed rest is advised in order to "immobilize the lungs" and "favor healing by fibrosis." During the past years, a number of surgical procedures have been adopted for reinforcing rest by mechanical splinting of the diseased lung, as pneumothorax, phrenic exeresis or thoracoplastic collapse. It is peculiar, however, that very little investigation has been done so far on the physiologic action of this mode of treatment. It is thought that by rest fibrous tissue develops both in the joints and in the lungs and that the lesions are encapsulated in a fibrous shell, bringing its development to a standstill; or that "nature" is helped