104 PASTEUR AND AFTER PASTEUR 



"Our medical men are using more and more 

 antitoxin every year. The worse the cases are, the 

 more anxious they are to give the antitoxin. I 

 said before, the very best results are always obtained 

 when the antitoxin is given at an early stage, before 

 the poison gets a thorough hold of the patient and 

 damages the tissues. If you can give it early, the 

 death-rate from diphtheria should be practically nil. 



" In 1895, we only supplied 1,200,000 units of 

 antitoxin to the whole of the Hospitals under the 

 Board : in 1896 we sent out 25^ million units : and 

 in 1897 we sent out 60^ million units." 



The doses given, in these first years, were much 

 smaller than the doses usually given now. In 

 the Board's Report for 1911, p. 210, we find that 

 the number of units sent out, in 1911, was 

 106,172,000. " It is calculated that on an average 

 17,328 units were used for each patient. The 

 amount of antitoxin supplied, the number of cases 

 treated, and the amount of antitoxin used for each 

 patient, all show a considerable increase. . . . 

 In addition to the supply to the Board's institutions, 

 two hospitals not under the Board viz., the Middle- 

 sex Hospital, and the Hospital for Sick Children, 

 Great Ormond Street were, as in previous years, 

 provided with diphtheria antitoxin, the total amount 

 taken by these Hospitals duringl911 being 1,000,000 

 units as compared with 700,000 units in 1910." 



Some points in the recent Reports of the Metro- 

 politan Asylums Board are of special interest : 



