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8
of diphtheria may be mentioned the report on the use of
antitoxin in the Asylums Board's hospitals recently issued.
It appears that three-fifths of the total cases admitted were
treated with antitoxin, and those mostly of the severer type.
The mortality on the total number of cases of all classes
treated in 1894 was 29.6; in 1895, 22.6, showing a reduction
of 7.2 per cent. under the antitoxin treatment. It was
found that there was a reduction of mortality in every age
group, that is, it diminished progressively as the age
advanced. The day of disease at which the treatment commences
is an important point; thus, whilst there was shown
a reduction of 10.8 per cent. on cases treated on the first day,
it had fallen to 3.7 per cent. on cases treated on the 5th day
and later. The Superintendents of the various hospitals
declare, that in their opinion, " we possess in antitoxin serum
a remedy of distinctly greater value in the treatment of
diphtheria than any other with which we are acquainted."
Measles occasioned nine deaths in the year, and was below
our annual average, which is 16. In the previous year there
had been 31 deaths from this cause, and after a period of
abeyance of many months, towards the end of 1895 this disease
again assumed formidable proportions, and attacked large
numbers of young children in the Netherwood Street Board
School with fatal results. 1 he aggregation of large numbers of
infants under one roof certainly seems to add to the danger
from a disease too often regarded with indifference by
parents, and suffered to run its course unheeded as one of
the inevitable diseases of child life. I have long made the
observation that this disease is only fatal to the children of
the working and labouring classes, a fact which points to a
want either of care or means in the treatment of this disease.