78 MODERN BIOLOGIC THERAPEUSIS 



the years 1583 and 1618. In the eighteenth cen- 

 tury, diphtheria spread beyond the two south- 

 ern peninsulas to every part of Europe and 

 North America. Between 1818 and 1821 oc- 

 curred the well-known 

 epidemic at Tours, de- 

 scribed by Bretonneau. 

 A second epidemic oc- 

 curred there in 1825-26 

 and, in Bretonneau 's 

 treatise which appeared 

 in 1826, the term" diph- 

 Bacillus diphtheriae. therite'' was first used. 



Twenty-four-hour agar 



culture, x 1000 diameters. This was changed by his 



pupil Trousseau to 



diphtheria. Next came the great epidemic of 

 1855-63 which, so far as can be gathered from 

 historic evidence, was greater than any outbreak 

 since the sixteenth century and differed from 

 the latter in its wide distribution. Between 1855 

 and 1880 all parts of the United States had been 

 invaded. 



Prior to the introduction of von Behring's 

 antitoxic serum in 1893, the mortality from 

 diphtheria was over 50 per cent. Under serum 

 treatment the mortality has been reduced to 



