DIPHTHERIA ANTITOXIN 



123 



only one case of diphtheria appeared in the village, 

 and that was in an uninoculated child ; while, in the 

 previous five months, 18.3 per cent, of the village 

 children had been attacked, of whom eight died, six 

 not having been treated with serum. Considering 

 the wretched hygienic condition of the village, the 

 harmlessness of preventive inoculations, and the 

 continuance of the disease in the neighbouring 

 villages, where diphtheria-vaccination was not 

 carried out, the extraordinary value of the inocula- 

 tions, in the prophylaxis of diphtheria, can hardly 

 be denied." (Brit. Med.Journ., 16th January 1897.) 



M The most striking confirmation of the value of 

 antitoxin has been afforded where the supply ran 

 short during an epidemic. In Baginsky's clinic, the 

 interruption of the serum-treatment promptly raised 

 the mortality from 15.6 to 48.4 per cent." (Brit, 

 Med. Journ. y 20th October 1895.) 



" In an analysis of the ratio of mortality in 266 

 German cities of about 15,000 inhabitants, it was 

 found that the ratio of mortality per 100,000 of the 

 living, before antitoxin was used, varied from 130 to 

 84 from 1886 to 1893, while the ratio from 1894 to 

 1897 varied from 10 1 to 35. It is a significant fact 

 that during 1894, when, although antitoxin was used 

 to a certain extent, it was not in general use, the 

 ratio was 10 1 ; that when antitoxin was used more 

 extensively, in 1895, tne ratio was 53 ; that in 1896 

 it was 43; that in 1897, when antitoxin was very 

 generally used, the rate fell to 35." (Trans. Massa- 

 chusetts Med. Soc, 1898.) 



" Dr Gabritchefski points out that in recent 

 years the number of persons (in Russia) attacked 

 by the disease has increased, the figures for the 

 whole of Russia rising from about 100,000 or 

 120,000, ten years ago, to considerably over 



