A clinical method that will be of assistance in a differential diagnosis of chronic enlargements of the cervical lymph-nodes and that, when it gives a positive finding is pathognomonic of the most frequent swelling of the neck, should undoubtedly be of service to clinicians.
The group of swellings of the neck, which in a general term may be classified as "chronic enlargement of the cervical lymph-nodes" and which comprises Hodgkin's disease or pseudoleukemia, lymphatic leukemia, lymphosarcoma, secondary carcinomatous lymph-nodes, syphilis of the cervical lymph-nodes, simple hyperplastic lymph-node inflammation and tuberculosis of the cervical lymph-nodes presents a clinical picture, which on local physical examination might describe any of the various diseases mentioned.
It remains for the clinician to arrive at a final conclusion only by a careful history and a thorough physical examination, by blood examination, especially by differential blood-counts, by serodiagnosis, as tuberculin, which may be of doubtful value, or