Journal of the American Medical Association · 1937 · 38 citations · 11 references
Life SciencesMicrobiologyPathologyBacteriologyInfectious Disease PathologyMedical MicrobiologyBacterial InfectionsInfectious PathologyPathogenesis Of Infectious DiseasePulmonary InfectionsRespiratory InfectionsRespiratory Tract InfectionsHistory Of Infectious DiseaseInfectious EtiologyPneumonia PathologyPulmonary Pathogenesis
Carl Friedlander 1 in 1882 described an organism which he found at necropsy in several cases of croupous pneumonia. He expressed the view that it was the chief etiologic agent of lobar pneumonia, thus precipitating a controversy which was not settled for many years. It is now generally agreed that Friedlander's observations were correct but that his deductions were too sweeping and based on insufficient data. For, soon after this, Talamon, 2 Fraenkel 3 and Sternberg 4 showed conclusively that the common cause of lobar pneumonia was Diplococcus lanceolatus or pneumococcus. It was their view that the organism described by Friedlander was not a true cause of pneumonia at all but merely a secondary invader. This swing of opinion regarding the pathogenicity of Friedlander's bacillus appears to have been as extreme and erroneous as Friedlander's original conclusions. Weichselbaum 5 approximated more closely to the truth as the result of a
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