DIPHTHERIA 103 



antitoxin- treatment in November, 1894 ; but only 

 24 cases were treated before 1894 came to an end : 

 let us start clear with 1895. For the years 1895-98, 

 we have the evidence given on November 12, 1907, 

 to the Royal Commission on Vivisection, by Pro- 

 fessor Sims Woodhead, now Professor of Pathology 

 at Cambridge. He superintended the preparation 

 of antitoxin for the Board Hospitals, and very 

 carefully watched and reported the results of its 

 use, from 1895 to 1898. His evidence is of absolute 

 authority : 



"You see a patient almost livid, breathing 

 heavily, with a very high temperature, in great 

 discomfort, and unable to sleep. You give that 

 patient a dose of antitoxin : and in three or four 

 hours he is breathing easily, the skin is acting, and 

 the patient is comfortable, and he goes to sleep. 

 That, to my mind, is even more striking than any 

 statistics that one can bring forward. 



"I may mention that, in our experiments on 

 animals, carried out in connection with the testing 

 of the potency of the antitoxin, an enormous dose 

 of toxin may be neutralised by a dose of antitoxin ; 

 and you may see that animal recover without 

 turning a hair, if one may put it in that way: 

 never losing its appetite, never losing in weight, 

 but simply going on as would a normal animal 

 into which no toxin has been introduced. 



" We found that the more antitoxin was given 

 in any Hospital, and the earlier it was given, the 

 greater was the diminution in the mortality. 



