326  Echinacea— Reply  to  Dr.  Beal        \ Am-  g£rm- 
these  one  died  in  two  days,  one  in  four  days  and  three  in  three 
days ;  five  which  received  2  ml.  of  remedy  were  found  dead  on  the 
morning  of  the  third  day ;  five  which  received  I  ml.  of  remedy  died 
on  the  third  day.  Of  four  animals  which  received  each  I  ml.  of 
69  per  cent,  alcohol  intramuscularly  two  died  in  three  days  and  two 
in  four  days.  All  of  the  animals  were  carefully  autopsied  and  none 
showed  anything  but  the  tetanus  picture. 
Dr.  Beal  has  averaged  the  survival  period  of  the  nineteen 
animals  which  received  echinacea  preparations  and  has  compared 
this  figure  with  the  similar  average  from  the  six  controls.  He  finds 
0.4  day  in  favor  of  the  echinacea  animals.  .  The  average  of  the 
animals  treated  with  alcohol  is  3.5  days,  or  0.85  day  better  than 
the  figure  adduced  for  the  echinacea.  If  the  data  is  significant  at 
all,  and  we  think  that  a  few  hours  or  even  days  is  hardly  of  im- 
portance in  the  face  of  the  general  fatal  termination  of  all  the 
animals,  the  only  conclusions  which  an  unbiased  clinician  could 
validly  draw  would  be  that  the  more  echinacea  the  animal  receives 
the  sooner  will  he  die ;  that  alcohol  may  postpone  the  fatal  issue  of 
tetanus  but  cannot  cure  it,  and  that  any  apparent  postponing  of  the 
death  after  echinacea  treatment  is  due  to  the  alcoholic  content  of 
the  remedy  used  rather  than  to  any  inherent  curative  powers  of 
the  echinacea  itself. 
An  instance  of  the  variability  which  is  encountered  in  this  sort 
of  work  and  the  very  minor  importance  of  it  may  be  found  in  the 
admirable  paper  of  Doctors  Rosenau  and  Anderson,3  "The  Stand- 
ardization of  Tetanus  Antitoxin"  from  which  the  following  is 
taken.  Of  fifty-eight  guinea  pigs 4  which  were  given  the  same 
dose  of  tetanus  toxin  subcutaneously  all  died;  the  first  died  in 
two  days  and  twelve  hours,  the  last  in  seven  days  and  twenty-three 
hours;  statistically: 
1  to  2 
days, 
none 
2  to  3 
3 
or  5.1% 
3  to  4 
it 
22 
37-9% 
4  to  5 
(c 
23 
39.6% 
5  to  6 
(( 
7 
12.0% 
6  to  7 
2 
3-4% 
7  to  8 
a 
1 
1.7% 
3  Hygienic  Laboratory,  Bulletin  43,  March.  1908. 
*  Table  No.  4,  pp.  16-17. 
