386 BACTERIA IN DIPHTHERIA. 



showed that when infected with streptococci these animals did not 

 prove to be more sensitive to the action of the diphtheria poison 

 (without living bacilli), and he concludes that the unfavorable influ- 

 ence of the streptococcus in mixed infections is due to increased patho- 

 genic activity on the part of the diphtheria bacillus. Bernheim 

 (1894) found, in his experiments on guinea-pigs, that they suc- 

 cumbed more rapidly to diphtheria infection when they previously 

 or simultaneously received an injection of a streptococcus culture- 

 filtered or unfiltered. 



Results of Treatment ivith the Antitoxin. While questions re- 

 lating to therapeutics are not considered in this manual, a brief note 

 upon the results of treatment by the serum of immunized animals 

 may not be out of place. A recent (1895) collective investigation 

 undertaken by the Deutsche medicinische Wochenschrift gave the 

 following results : The number of cases collected was 10,312; all of 

 these occurred between the 1st of October, 1894, and the 1st of April, 

 1895; 5,883 of these cases were treated with the antitoxin and 4,479 

 without it. In the first group the mortality was 9.6 per cent, and in 

 the second group 14.7 per cent. Two thousand five hundred and fifty 

 six children treated with the antitoxin were between two and ten 

 years of age; among these the mortality was 4 per cent, while 

 among children of the same age not treated with the antitoxin the 

 mortality was 15.2 per cent. Six hundred and ninety-six patients 

 above ten years of age were treated with a mortality of 1 per cent. 



Monod (1895), at a meeting of the Paris Academy of Medicine, 

 presented the following statistics demonstrating the influence upon 

 the mortality from diphtheria in France exerted by the antitoxin 

 since its employment from November, 1894. The following figures 

 represent the number of deaths from diphtheria during the first six 

 months in eight years in 108 French cities having a population of 

 more than 20,000: 



1805, 



Average. Average. 



January 469 205 



February 466 187 



March 499 155 



April 442 160 



. May 417 113 



June 333 84 



2,656 904 



It will be seen from the above statement that during the first six 

 months in the year 1895 after the introduction of the antitoxin treat- 

 ment, the number of deaths from diphtheria in the 108 French cities 

 referred to was 1,552 less than the average for the preceding ten 

 years, and we are justified in concluding that a considerable propor- 

 tion of this saving at least is due to this new method of treatment. 



