108 



1,891 more cases were notified in 1911 than in 1910. 

 The number of cases which were treated with anti- 

 toxin was 3,864. " The rate of mortality among 

 cases treated on the first day of the disease was 

 2*7 per cent. ; on the second day, 3-4 per cent. ; on 

 the third day, 8*9 per cent. ; on the fourth day, 

 12*6 per cent. ; and on the fifth day and later, 

 13*4 per cent." 



6. A chart, from the Report for 1911, is repro- 

 duced on the preceding page. We are sometimes 

 told that the blessings of diphtheria antitoxin must 

 be discounted, because the disease, nowadays, is " of 

 a milder type." But these laryngeal cases were not 

 " of a milder type " : they were all of them severe 

 cases, every one of them. 



7. The Report for 1912, p. 155, states that the 

 death-rate, calculated on the admissions, was 6*8, 

 the lowest on record. And it omits the usual anti- 

 toxin tables : for this good reason, that " the anti- 

 toxin treatment of diphtheria has been for some 

 years past so well-established that further accumula- 

 tion of details concerning it is unnecessary." Report 



for 1912, p. 249. 



Of late years, much study has been given, in this 

 and other countries, to the important subject of 

 diphtheria-carriers, i.e., persons who have recovered 

 from diphtheria, or have been in contact with 

 diphtheria, and, though they are in good health, 

 yet are capable of conveying the disease. A full 

 account of the whole subject, from every point of 

 view historical, bacteriological, and practical will 

 be found in The Carrier Problem in Infectious 



