tuberculin Med.
(tjuːˈbɜːkjʊlɪn)
Also erron. -ine.
[f. L. tūberculum tubercle + -in1.]
a. A liquid prepared from cultures of tubercle-bacillus, originally by Dr. Koch of Berlin in 1890, or any one of various later modifications of this, used by hypodermic injection as a remedy, or (now esp.) as a test, for tuberculosis.
| 1891 Daily News 12 Feb. 6/5 Dr. Koch's lymph has received the name of ‘tuberculine’. 1893 Times 19 Dec. 3/2 ‘Tuberculin’..has been employed as an aid to the diagnosis of tuberculosis. 1896 Westm. Gaz. 10 Mar. 4/1 At the Balneological Congress,..Dr. Kaatzer spoke very highly of the value of tuberculin in phthisis... Professor Liebreich asserted that the cure of lupus by tuberculin was more apparent than real. 1899 Syd. Soc. Lex., Tuberculin, Koch's lymph..consisting of ptomaines of the tubercle bacilli. |
b. attrib. and
Comb., as
tuberculin reaction,
† tuberculin treatment;
tuberculin test, the injection of tuberculin,
usu. intradermally, as a test for the past or present existence of tubercle bacilli in the individual; also as
v. trans.; hence
tuberculin-tested ppl. a. (see
quot. 1950).
| 1906 Review of Reviews Sept. 366 [It] showed no tuberculine reaction. 1955 Sci. News Let. 1 Oct. 221/1 The tuberculin test is a skin test. A tuberculin reaction means that tuberculosis germs have invaded the person's body and sensitized it to proteins of the TB germ. |
| 1900 Dorland Med. Dict. s.v. Tests, Tuberculin-test. 1908 Med. Annual 662 Tuberculin Test.—This test, prepared by the Pasteur Institute of Lille, claims to be diagnostic of tuberculosis in man. 1950 J. G. Davis Dict. Dairying 721 Three forms of tuberculin test have been evolved—the ophthalmic, the subcutaneous and the intradermal. 1966 Tuberculin test [see intradermic adj. s.v. intra- 1]. |
| 1937 Amer. Rev. Tuberculosis XXXV. 598 A classification of the 56,688 persons tuberculin-tested according to age disclosed the fact that boys and girls between ten and nineteen years of age comprised almost two-thirds of the groups reported. |
| 1936 Tuberculin-tested [see certified ppl. a. d]. 1950 J. G. Davis Dict. Dairying 721 Tuberculin-tested milk, milk which is derived solely from a herd of tuberculin-tested cows under licence and kept pure and unmixed with other non-tuberculin-tested milk. 1982 M. Young Elmhirsts of Dartington xi. 277 Nielsen admitted to disposing of a small quantity of milk as Tuberculin Tested when it was not. |
| 1908 Med. Annual 47 Roemisch thinks that tuberculin treatment gives good results in a class of chronic phthisical patients, in whom the ordinary treatment with fresh air and rest at first gives marked improvement.., but after a time no further improvement can be obtained. 1912 Nature 12 Dec. 427/2 The mortality of the phthisical under sanatorium and tuberculin treatments. |
Hence
tuˈberculinize v., trans. to treat with tuberculin; whence
tuˌberculiniˈzation (Dorland).
| 1895 Buck's Handbk. Med. Sc. IX. 900/2 Comparing..the condition of the various organs of the tuberculinized with that of the same in healthy animals. 1899 in Syd. Soc. Lex. |