150 



DIPHTHERIA 



disease. On this point, the best authority is 

 Professor Woodhead's monumental Report (1901), 

 dealing with the Metropolitan Asylums Board cases 

 for 1895 an d 1896. He sums up the matter 

 thus : — 



" The free use of antitoxin does not raise the 

 percentage of cases of albuminuria. As regards 

 vomiting, the statistics give little information, as 

 vomiting is usually met with only in the very severe 

 cases. This also holds good of anuria. The 

 number of cases of adenitis appears to be distinctly 

 reduced by the use of antitoxin, as the percentage 

 of cases falls as the injections of antitoxin are 

 pushed. The use of antitoxin has also had a 

 perceptible effect in diminishing the cases of 

 nephritis, and it certainly has not aggravated the 

 kidney complications of diphtheria. There can be 

 no doubt that in cases treated with antitoxin there 

 is a greater percentage of cases in which joint-pains 

 occur than in cases not so treated ; these, however, 

 are transitory, and are probably the result of some 

 slight change in the blood set up by the action of 

 the serum itself, and not by the antitoxic substance 

 in the serum. The number of primary abscesses 

 has undoubtedly been reduced by the use of anti- 

 toxin. It may also be accepted that antitoxic serum 

 has some effect in temporarily raising the tempera- 

 ture, but only during the periods of joint-pains and 

 serum rashes ; all these, however, are of compara- 

 tively slight importance as compared with the 

 effect the antitoxin has in diminishing the per- 

 centage mortality and alleviating the more severe 

 symptoms. 



"It is of importance to observe that amongst 



