BACTERIOLOGY OF PULMONARY ABSCESS

The clinical questions that surround the origin, the diagnosis and the treatment of pulmonary abscess are numerous. A considerable number of them may not be answered in the light of present knowledge of this condition. The answers to some of these practical and pertinent questions must come from the reciprocal orientation of the knowledge of the surgeon and the clinician with the knowledge of the specialist in correlated fields, the roentgenologist, the pathologist, the bacteriologist, and so on. These specialists have their own puzzles. With regard to the bacteriologist, it is perhaps not too much to say that pulmonary abscess, representing a mixed infection that includes a tremendous variety of bacterial types, is extremely puzzling; and it may not be too much to say that few clinical men have been able to keep up with the changing front of bacteriology, and with the status of the great number of organisms