DIPHTHERIA ANTITOXIN 431 



" During the past six years," Dr MacCombie reports, ** the total number of cases 

 treated with antitoxin has been 4202. Not a single death has taken place among 

 the cases that came under treatment on the first day of disease, and among those 

 coming under treatment on the second day of disease, the mortality has not exceeded 

 5-4, and has been as low as 3 '6. While among those that came under treatment later 

 the average mortality is very much higher. Were it possible to secure the admission 

 to hospital of all cases on the first or second day of illness, the lives of a large number 

 of patients would thereby be saved."* Dieudonne has collected similar returns to 

 the foregoing table from four or five different sources. The importance of early 

 administration is therefore widely established. 



* Annual Report of Metropolitan Asylums Board, 1902, p. 208 ; see also Report, 

 1903, p. 218. 



