100 MODERN BIOLOGIC THERAPEUSIS 



Mortality Lowered Statistics showing the 

 results of the treatment with antitoxin are far 

 from convincing. The mortality of tetanus 

 treated symptomatically is estimated by most 

 observers at 78 to 90 per cent. Tetanus is a dis- 

 ease which presents so many variable factors in- 

 fluencing the prognosis that the evaluation of 

 Tetanus Antitoxin is a matter of considerable 

 difficulty, and many experienced clinicians 

 have doubted whether the results obtained 

 from its use have been any better than those ob- 

 tained from symptomatic treatment. A study 

 of the mortality statistics of many hospitals 

 shows that too often this skepticism has been 

 well founded. Opposed to this pessimistic view 

 are the reports of a number of small groups of 

 carefully observed cases, such as those of Ash- 

 hurst and John, in which the evidence seems 

 strong that antitoxin deserved large credit for 

 the recovery of the patients. Permin has col- 

 lected statistics in Denmark of the mortality of 

 tetanus treated with and without antitoxin, and 

 he found a mortality of 78.9 per cent in cases 

 treated without antitoxin, as compared with a 

 mortality of 57.7 per cent in cases receiving an- 

 titoxin. In a recent paper (Journal Infectious 



