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15
5. The beneficial effect produced on the clinical course
of the disease.
With such an opinion from those most competent to judge,
there can be no doubt that in anti-diphtheritic serum we have a
remedy of great potency in the treatment of diphtheria.
During the past year it was represented to me by Dr. Frederick
Wallace, of Upper Clapton, that it would probably be for the benefit
of the public health if the serum could be obtained locally, thereby
avoiding the delay involved—in some instances probably 24 hours—in
obtaining it from the manufacturers. Such a saving of time in the
administration of the remedy might result in the saving of the
patient's life.
Influenced by these considerations, I reported these circumstances
to the Public Health Committee, and recommended that I
should keep a small stock of the serum at the Town Hall, to be
supplied to medical practitioners who desired it at cost price. This
was agreed to, and I was instructed to obtain the serum I required,
and to inform the medical practitioners of the district of the
arrangement made. Prom the number of applications made for
serum up to the end of the year, I am convinced the action of the
Committee was wise in the interest of public health. The spread of
Diphtheria in this country, and London in particular, is so serious
that no step, however small, which promises either to lessen the
mortality or spread of the disease, should be neglected by the Local
Authority.
Towards the end of the year, I received a communication from
the Clerk to the Asylums Board asking whether, in the event of
pressure upon the Board's accommodation, necessitating the temporary
refusal of diphtheria cases, I should be willing to receive and
distribute serum to medical practitioners for the use of those eases
refused admission to hospital; I, of course, replied in the affirmative,
as I believe by this arrangement there will be very little delay in
the delivery of the serum to the medical attendants.