In his "Principles and Practice of Medicine," Osler uses these words: "The treatment of tubercular peritonitis has fallen largely into the hands of the surgeons." And after a long search among medical text-books I ceased to wonder at this, for I could get but little information on the medical treatment. Therefore the average practitioner who depends on his text-books would seem to have no way of learning how to treat it. He is taught to treat peritonitis by opium, rest, etc., and to send the case to the surgeon.
The fact that improvement takes place after an abdominal incison in cases of tubercular peritonitis, has led many surgeons to look on the procedure as a cure. If, however, we believe with von Winckel that five years should elapse before the patient is considered cured, and remember that only about 15 per cent. have been under observation more than two years