DIPHTHERIA ANTITOXIN 



133 



satisfactory proof of the existence of true diphtheria 

 was not shown, either by the presence of the 

 Bacillus diphtheria upon bacteriological examina- 

 tion, or by the occurrence of paralysis in the course 

 of the illness. All were also rejected in which the 

 amount of antitoxin administered was stated in 

 cubic centimetres and not in normal units, the 

 Committee having no means by which the strength 

 of the antitoxin could in these cases be determined. 



" Six hundred and thirty-three cases form the 

 basis on which the report is drawn up ; 549 were 

 treated with antitoxin obtained from the laboratory 

 of the Royal Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons ; 

 the remainder, 84 in number, were injected with 

 antitoxin obtained from other sources. In nine 

 instances, antitoxin from two different sources was 

 injected into the same patient. 



" Statistics of the disease before the use of anti- 

 toxin are introduced as control series ; these were 

 obtained from the fever hospitals of the Metropoli- 

 tan Asylums Board, and from the general hospitals ; 

 and, like the antitoxin series, are compiled from 

 consecutive and not from selected cases. 



"The general mortality, under the antitoxin 

 treatment, was 19.5 per cent. ; a reduction of 10 

 on the percentage mortality of the cases treated in 

 the hospitals of the Metropolitan Asylums Board in 

 1894. ^ l 5 fatal cases, in which death took 

 place within twenty-four hours of the first injection, 

 be deducted, the mortality falls to 15.6 per cent. ; 

 which is very little more than half the mortality 

 during 1894 under other forms of treatment. 



