242 A MANUAL OF BACTERIOLOGY 



plenty of fresh air, and good nourishing food, are 

 what are required in the treatment of diphtheria. 

 Kill the germs as far as possible by means of the 

 antiseptics [germicides], and strengthen the tissue 

 cells by plenty of oxygen, and by promoting the 

 excretion of effete products, by food and exercise, 

 so that the cells shall be able to form their protec- 

 tive products, and shall also be able to play their 

 part as phagocytes when called upon to do so.' It 

 should be borne in mind that in diphtheria the 

 bacilli are localised in the throat ; but the poisonous 

 products (ptomaines and enzyme), which the bacilli 

 form, pass into the system. If the bacilli are 

 destroyed by germicides, 1 these poisonous products 

 cannot increase in the system ; and if they have not 

 already accumulated in too large a quantity, they 

 are readily excreted. ' Another important point is 

 that the disappearance of the bacilli from the mouth 

 is not simultaneous with the removal of the false 

 membrane, and Roux and Yersin have found that 

 the specific bacillus may persist in the mouth for 

 several days (in one case fourteen days) after all 

 traces of the membrane have disappeared, and they 

 give the good practical advice that diphtheritic 

 patients who are becoming convalescent should not 

 be allowed to associate with their school-fellows, 

 play-mates, or families, for at least a fortnight after 

 the membrane has disappeared ; and that it is quite 

 as important to wash out the throat freely three or 



1 Dr. Wagner (Jour, fur PraJct. Chemie, vol. xi. ) has success- 

 fully used a solution of salicylic acid in the treatment of 

 diphtheria. 



