748 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



in London, in Berlin, in Paris, man will not die of diphtheria, of 

 typhoid, of scarlet fever, of cholera, or of tuberculosis, any more 

 than he dies in these cities to-day oil the venom of snakes or of 

 the tooth of wolves/ " 



But it is not alone in preventive medicine that important 

 practical results have been accomplished. Therapeutics has also 

 been greatly and favorably influenced by the discovery of the 

 specific germs of a considerable number of infectious diseases. 

 Naturally, the effort is to destroy these germs at the focus of 

 infection, or to render the conditions in the body of the infected 

 individual unfavorable for their development. When the focus 

 of infection is superficial or within comparatively easy reach, 

 as in erysipelas or diphtheria, local treatment with germicidal 

 agents is often attended with favorable results. But when the 

 deeper tissues and organs of the body are invaded, or the germ 

 multiplies abundantly in the blood, but little can be accomplished 

 by the use of agents of this class. Our bacteriological researches 

 have, however, recently resulted in the discovery of a method of 

 treatment which has been employed with remarkable success in 

 two of the infectious diseases of man, and which there is reason 

 to believe may eventually be found to have a more extended ap- 

 plication. I refer to the therapeutic use of antitoxins contained 

 in, or obtained from, the blood of animals rendered immune by 

 repeated inoculations with cultures of a specific disease germ. 

 The diseases in which the greatest success has been attained by 

 this mode of treatment are tetanus and diphtheria. As the last- 

 mentioned is by far the most important from a practical point of 

 view, I will confine my remarks to the results of treatment in this 

 disease. Fortunately, I have at hand a recent summary of the 

 clinical evidence in favor of this mode of treatment, made by a 

 very competent and conservative physician Prof. William H. 

 Welch, of the Johns Hopkins University. Prof. Welch con- 

 cludes his paper as follows : 



"The principal conclusion which I would draw from this 

 paper is that our study of the results of the treatment of over 

 seven thousand cases of diphtheria by antitoxin demonstrates 

 beyond all reasonable doubt that antidiphtheric serum is a spe- 

 cific curative agent for diphtheria, surpassing in its efficacy all 

 other known methods of treatment for this disease. It is the 

 duty of the physician to use it." 



A recent report on antitoxin treatment in Germany, obtained 

 by collective investigation, on a total of 10,312 cases occurring in 

 a period of six months from October 1, 1894, gives very striking 

 results. Of the whole number, 5,833 were treated with serum, 

 and 4,479 without it. The proportion of deaths in the former 

 group was 9'6 per cent, in contrast to 14*7 per cent in the latter. 



