122 



DIPHTHERIA 



Strasbourg, Cairo, Boston, and New York ; these 

 to begin with. Or the following facts, cut almost 

 at random out of the medical journals : — 



"The medical report of the French army states 

 that since the introduction of the serum-treatment 

 of diphtheria, the mortality among cases of that 

 disease had fallen from n per cent, to 6 per cent." 

 {Brit. Med, Joum., 3rd September 1898.) 



" Professor Kronlein (Zurich) exhibited statisti- 

 cal tables, showing that the prevalence of diphtheria 

 in the canton of Zurich had been nearly uniform 

 during the past fifteen years ; and that the mortality 

 rapidly decreased as soon as antitoxic serum was 

 used on a somewhat larger scale. In his clinic, all 

 the patients were examined bacteriologically, and 

 serum was administered in every case of diphtheria 

 without exception. Of 1336 cases treated before 

 the serum-period, 554 = 39.4 per cent, died; whilst 

 during the serum-period there were 55 deaths among 

 437 cases=i2 per cent. In cases of tracheotomy, 

 the death-rates before and during the serum-period 

 were 66 and 38.8 per cent, respectively." {Lancet, 

 7th May 1898, Report of German Surgical Congress 

 at Berlin.) 



" Dr Karman was entrusted by the Hungarian 

 Government with the task of instituting measures 

 for preventing the spread of diphtheria in a village 

 and its neighbourhood. As general hygienic 

 regulations accomplished nothing, he tried preven- 

 tive inoculation. . . . Among 114 children thus 

 treated, there was during the next two months no 

 case of diphtheria, although the disease was preva- 

 lent in the village up to the date at which inoculation 

 commenced, and continued to rage in the surround- 

 ing villages afterwards. During those two months, 



