16 T. W. E. DAVID. 
Diphtheria; its diagnosis and treatment.—One of the features 
of the past year was the general introduction into this Colony of 
the use of antitoxic serum for the cure of diphtheria. This 
material, the first of its kind which has acquired a definite place 
amongst therapeutic measures, consists of the serum separated 
from the blood of horses which have undergone special preparatory 
treatment before being bled. The preliminary treatment is such 
that the serum obtained becomes powerfully curative of diphtheria. 
_The Health Department instituted and maintained during four 
months, the importation and gratuitous distribution of supplies of 
this serum to qualified medical practitioners applying for it. After 
that time local druggists being prepared to supply the remedy its 
importation by the Department was stopped. The results of the 
use of the serum supplied by the Health Department were embodied 
in a report presented to Parliament in August 1895.1 
The data contained in the report show that the results of the 
treatment with antitoxin serum are highly satisfactory, ‘since 
they appear to show that the mortality has been much reduced, 
that the cases have been rendered milder in their course, and that 
no untoward effects have been developed as a result of any un- 
desired bye-action of the remedy. The estimated number of 
human lives saved in New South Wales would thus be about two 
hundred (200) per annum.” 
Subsequent reports appearing in the medica] journals of this 
‘ Colony more than confirmed this opinion of the Board, and the 
most satisfactory results have been reported from the Sydney and 
Brisbane Children’s Hospitals. Indeed the testimony from all 
parts of the world is so unanimous as to silence all dissent, and 
we may congratulate ourselves on the possession of a remedy 
which robs diphtheria of the major part of its terrors. In con- 
nection with the distribution of the serum, the Health Depart- 
ment undertook to examine specimens from the throats of persons 
suspected of having diphtheria. This disease in its severer forms 
1 Report by Board of Health to Legislative Assembly N. S. Wales. 
—Antitoxin Serum for the Cure of Diphtheria, by authority, 1895. 
Salas 
