l y i Trans. Acad. Sci. of St. Louis. 



tion of some of the mathematical formulae employed by 

 Herbart to represent mental phenomena, in which these for- 

 mulae were criticised as inadequate. Though not considering 

 any formulae likely to be satisfactory, from the nature of the 

 case, the speaker offered a substitute for the Herbart formulae 

 pertaining to the bringing into consciousness of a sublatent 

 concept through the suggestion of another concept similar in 

 some respects but different in others. 



Dr. Amand Ravold reported on the use in St. Louis of 

 diphtheria antitoxine, prepared by the Health Department of 

 the city. During the past winter, 342 cases of diphtheria 

 had been treated with this serum, by ninety-three physicians. 

 Doses of from 2.5 to 100 cc. had been administered. As a 

 rule, the recovery was far slower when the number of units 

 used was small than when a larger quantity was employed. 

 Usually the serum was administered only once. In about half 

 the cases a decided change for the better was noticeable 

 within twenty-four hours, and these cases were practically 

 cured within forty-eight hours, although attention was called 

 to the fact that for some weeks the throat of a con- 

 valescent is a breeding-place for the diphtheria bacilli, the 

 virulence of which did not seem to be diminished by the serum 

 treatment. Of the cases reported ou, only 9.06 per cent, died, 

 and, as a considerable number of cases were hopeless when 

 treatment was administered, the patients dying within twenty- 

 four hours thereafter, it was considered fair to deduct these 

 deaths from the total, which reduced the mortality to 4.6 per 

 cent, when the serum was administered in the earliest stages 

 of the disease. The injurious consequences of administering 

 the serum were fully considered, but held to be practically 

 insignificant. It was also stated that when used on persons 

 who had been exposed to but had not manifested the disease, 

 the serum proved an unfailing means of conferring immunity 

 for a certain period of time. Among the advantages in the 

 use of this serum was mentioned that of lessening the chances 

 of secondary infection, so frequent after an attack of diph- 

 theria. 



On behalf of the committee appointed at the last meeting, 



