130 



DIPHTHERIA 



713 deaths =12.3 per cent., including every case 

 returned; but 218 were moribund at the time of 

 injection, or died within twenty-four hours of the 

 first injection. " Should these be excluded, there 

 would remain 5576 cases in which the serum may 

 be said to have had a chance, with a mortality of 

 8.8 per cent." 



Of 996 cases injected on the first day of the disease, 49 died= 4.9 % 

 „ 1616 „ on the second „ 120 „ = 7.4 „ 



„ 1508 „ on the third „ 134 „ = 8.8 „ 



„ 758 tj on the fourth „ 147 „ =20.7,, 



„ 690 „ on or after the fifth „ 244 „ =35.3 ,, 



And in 232 cases, where the day of injection was 

 unknown, there were 19 deaths = 8.2 per cent. 



" No one feature of the cases of diphtheria treated 

 by antitoxin has excited more surprise among the 

 physicians who have reported them than the prompt 

 arrest, by the timely administration of the serum, of 

 membrane which was rapidly spreading downward 

 below the larnyx. Such expressions abound in the 

 reports as 'wonderful,' 'marvellous,' 'in all my 

 experience with diphtheria, have never seen any- 

 thing like it before,' etc. 



" Turning now to the operative cases, we find 

 the same remarkable effects of the antitoxin notice- 

 able. Operations were done in 565 cases, or in 

 16.7 per cent, of the entire number reported. 

 Intubation was performed 533 times, with 138 

 deaths, or a mortality of 25.9 per cent. In the 

 above are included 9 cases in which a secondary 

 tracheotomy was done, with 7 deaths. In 32, 

 tracheotomy only was done, with 12 deaths, a 



