GERMS. 83 



tinctly taught : * You will remark that at the first day 

 of the appearance a radical cure may be obtained in 

 forty-eight hours/ Yet antitoxin advocates claim 

 everything, because in some cases treated with antitoxin 

 the false membrane begins to disappear, as they say, 

 early; in two or three days (Wiemer), or three or four 

 days (Baginsky). This also happens earlier and later. 

 In fact, with antitoxin it is often very much later. 

 Chapin speaks of seven-year old patients receiving 

 4,500 units on the third day, with the result that the 

 throat cleared only after six days, and later the mem- 

 brane partly reformed. Winters saw it remain ten 

 days in two cases, and in another at the end of the 

 twenty-second day it was still present. 



"It is conceded that eruptions are often caused by 

 the injection of antitoxin. Engelman and Morse de- 

 scribe cases of urticaria. Myer saw urticarial rash in 

 one case, and a macular eruption in another. Berg, 

 in summing up his observations, concludes: f ln very 

 many cases the eruption, if at all general, is at least 

 a discomfort/ In others a decided increase in the 

 gravity of the disease accompanies the appearance of 

 the eruption, which is present in at least ten per cent 

 of cases treated with antitoxin. Martin and Hunt saw 

 the eruption in 27.5 per cent of 178 antitoxin-treated 

 cases. The London Asylums' Hospital Eeport for 1896 

 says the eruption appeared in 35.2 per cent of the 

 cases treated with antitoxin. 



"Joint troubles also follow the use of antitoxin. 

 Lombard had one case in which there was pain in the 



