RT Journal
A1 BABCOCK RH
T1 PNeumonia of the aged.
JF Journal of the American Medical Association
JO Journal of the American Medical Association
YR 1899
FD August 19
VO XXXIII
IS 8
SP 438
OP 441
DO 10.1001/jama.1899.92450600004001b
UL http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jama.1899.92450600004001b
AB This paper is presented with no expectation of its offering anything new, but because the importance of the subject should lend it interest. This importance arises from the fact that pneumonia is far more prevalent among old people than is generally supposed, while the mortality for which it is responsible is so great that in the language of William Osler, "pneumonia may be said to be the natural end of old people in this country." Moreover, the phraseology of the title "pneumonia of the aged" rather than "in the aged" was chosen because of my conviction that the form which so mercilessly strikes down those already enfeebled by senility is due to the pneumococcus and not to an extension of bronchitis. We have been so accustomed to think of the intimate association of old age and bronchitis in the causation of catarrhal pneumonia that I fear the statement in the foregoing sentence will impress many as extreme. For years my conception