A£ovS£%™'}  Properties  and  Uses  of  Formaldehyde.  617 
ease,  or  later.  Hence,  the  aggregate  statistics  of  ail  cases  are  not 
nearly  so  striking.  Nevertheless,  taking  it  altogether,  the  mortality 
in  1895  was  less  than  had  ever  before  been  experienced  in  those 
hospitals.  I  should  add  that  there  was  no  reason  to  think  that  the 
disease  was  of  a  milder  type  than  usual  in  1895,  and  no  change 
whatever  was  made  in  the  treatment,  except  as  regards  the  anti- 
toxic injections. 
There  is  one  piece  of  evidence  recorded  in  the  report  which, 
though  it  is  not  concerned  with  high  numbers,  is  well  worthy  of 
notice.  It  relates  to  a  special  institution  to  which  convalescents 
from  scarlet  fever  are  sent  from  all  the  six  hospitals.  Such  patients 
occasionally  contract  diphtheria,  and  when  they  do  so,  the  added 
disease  has  generally  proved  extremely  fatal.  In  the  five  years 
preceding  the  introduction  of  the  treatment  with  antitoxin,  the 
mortality  from  this  cause  had  never  been  less  than  50  per  cent., 
and  averaged,  on  the  whole,  61-9  per  cent.  During  1895,  under 
antitoxin,  the  deaths  among  the  119  patients  of  this  class  were 
only  7-5  per  cent.,  or  one-eighth  of  what  had  been  previously 
experienced.  This  very  striking  result  seems  to  be  naturally 
explained  by  the  fact  that  these  patients  being  already  in  hospital 
when  the  diphtheria  appeared,  an  unusually  early  opportunity  was 
afforded  for  dealing  with  it. 
There  are  certain  cases  of  so  malignant  a  character  from  the 
first  that  no  treatment  will  probably  ever  be  able  to  cope  with 
them.  But  taking  all  cases  together,  it  seems  probable  that 
Behring's  hope  that  the  mortality  may  be  reduced  to  5  per  cent, 
will  be  fully  realized  when  the  public  become  alive  to  the  para- 
mount importance  of  having  the  treatment  commenced  at  the 
outset  of  the  disease. 
THE  PROPERTIES  AND  USES  OF  FORMALDEHYDE.1 
By  F.  C.  J.  Bird. 
The  antiseptic  and  disinfectant  properties  of  formaldehyde  have 
been  extensively  investigated  during  the  last  two  years,  and  the 
results  obtained,  both  by  bacteriologists  and  in  the  practice  of  vari- 
ous industries,  have  given  it  at  once  an  important  position  amongst 
bactericidal  agents.  Formaldehyde  is  gaseous  at  ordinary  tempera- 
tures, but  is  now  obtainable,  commercially,  as  a  concentrated  solu- 
Pharmaceutical  Journal,  September  26,  1896. 
