358 BACTERIOLOGY. 



serum or antitoxin in animals, and its practical appli- 

 cation to the treatment and cure of diphtheria, has 

 been shared by many experimenters, at first chiefly 

 in Germany and France, and later in this country. 

 Among those whose labors in this direction have ren- 

 dered them most worthy of mention are Behring, 

 Ehrlich, Boer, Kossel, and Aronson in Germany; 

 Roux, Martin, and Chaillou in France. 



Results of the Antitoxin Treatment of Diphtheria. 

 Though the results of the antitoxin treatment of 

 diphtheria belong properly to the province of serum- 

 therapy rather than to bacteriology, in view of the 

 great practical importance of the subject it may not be 

 amiss to quote here the conclusions arrived at by Biggs 

 and Guerard after a review of all the statistics and 

 opinions published since the beginning of the antitoxin 

 treatment in 1892 : 



" It matters not from what point of view the sub- 

 ject is regarded, if the evidence now at hand is properly 

 weighed, but one conclusion is or can be reached 

 whether we consider the percentage of mortality from 

 diphtheria and croup in cities as a whole, or in hospi- 

 tals, or in private practice; or whether we take the 

 absolute mortality for all the cities of Germany whose 

 population is over 15,000, and all the cities of France 

 whose population is over 20,000; or the absolute mor- 

 tality for New York City, or for the great hospitals in 

 France, Germany, and Austria; or whether we con- 

 sider only the most fatal cases of diphtheria, the laryn- 

 geal and operative cases; or whether we study the ques- 

 tion with relation to the day of the disease on which 

 treatment is commenced, or the age of the patient 

 treated; it matters not how the subject is regarded or 



