THE CONQUEST OF DISEASE 



An active campaign has been conducted 

 throughout the medical profession to reduce 

 this mortality. All over the country, surgeons 

 and medical journals have advised the injec- 

 tion of tetanus antitoxin in every case of 

 blank cartridge wound. The American Medi- 

 cal Association has compiled statistics of 

 Fourth of July fatalities for the past six years. 

 Six years ago the Fourth of July tetanus cases 

 numbered 416. Then physicians began a more 

 general use of antitoxin in all cases of blank 

 cartridge and cannon cracker wounds. As a 

 result of this campaign of prophylaxis, by an- 

 titoxin injections, from 416 cases of tetanus in 

 1903, the number dropped to 105 cases in 1904, 

 104 cases in 1905, 89 cases in 1906, 73 cases in 

 1907, and 55 cases in 1908. This reduction in 

 the number of tetanus cases took place while 

 the number of accidents remained practically 

 the same each year, and while the number of 

 deaths from causes other than tetanus was 

 steadily rising from 60 in 1903 to 108 in 1908. 

 It is thus evident that the saving of at least 

 300 lives from tetanus has been accomplished 

 each year through the prophylactic use of teta- 

 nus antitoxin, in the cases of Fourth of July 

 wounds alone. These represent but a small 



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