328  Echinacea— Reply  to  Dr.  Beal.        { Am-^£;  f^m- 
Dr.  Beal  states,  "the  average  clinician  in  reviewing  the  results 
would  be  likely  to  claim  that  they  showed  a  decided  effect  of  the 
drug  in  prolonging  the  life  of  the  infected  animals.''  We  are  unable 
to  agree  with  this  statement.  In  the  first  place  no  such  effect  is 
demonstrated ;  in  the  second  the  clinician  would  be  apt  to  attach  great 
importance  to  the  fact  that  the  death  of  40  per  cent,  of  the  cases  was 
apparently  hastened  by  the  administration  of  the  echinacea. 
Anthrax. — The  only  point  to  note  here  is  that  the  controls  died 
in  four  and  eight  days,  the  average  of  which  is  six.  We  think  that 
the  average  figure  6  is  not  significant. 
Rattlesnake  Venin. — Of  eleven  animals,  six  were  treated,  three 
were  used  as  stated  controls,  and  two  others  which  were  used  in  de- 
termining the  M.L.D.  of  the  venin  were  treated  exactly  as  the  con- 
trols and  may  be  considered  as  such.  One  treated  animal  managed 
to  survive  after  hovering  between  life  and  death  for  several  weeks 
in  a  miserable  condition ;  all  of  the  others  died.  It  has  been'  stated 
somewhere  that  80  per  cent,  of  people  bitten  by  rattlesnakes  recover. 
Of  the  fatal  cases  which  received  treatment  one  died  on  the  first 
day,  three  died  on  the  third  day,  and  one  died  on  the  fifth  day.  Of 
the  controls,  two  died  on  the  second  day  and  three  on  the  third  day. 
We  do  not  think  that  the  data  warrants  any  favorable  consideration 
of  echinacea  as  a  remedy  in  crotalus  poisoning. 
Tuberculosis. — Of  eight  animals  which  were  infected  with  the 
organism  two  were  kept  as  controls*  and  the  rest  were  treated.  One 
of  the  controls  died  in  thirteen  days ;  the  other  control  died  on  the 
thirty-third  day,  when  four  of  the  treated  animals  had  succumbed, 
and  was  survived  by  the  two  remaining  treated  animals  for  three  and 
five  days.  Here  again  we  have  compared  an  average  of  six  results 
with  that  of  two  results,  which  is  hardly  admissible.  If  two  analyses 
of  some  substance  showed  13  per  cent,  and  33  per  cent,  of,  let  us 
say,  iodine,  would  it  be  legitimate  to  state  that  the  substance  con- 
tains 23  per  cent,  of  iodine  ?  The  significant  fact  of  the  tuberculosis 
experiment  is  that,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  animals  received  large 
amounts  of  the  remedies  and  were  given  every  favorable  opportunity 
for  recovery,  every  one  of  them  died.  Furthermore,  if  anyone 
wishes  to  sustain  the  contention  that  the  slight  survival  period  of  the 
treated  animals  over  the  controls  is  really  germane,  he  must  be  pre- 
