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42
country, not of the sick child but, of the children " who had
not then complained of any symptoms of the disease." It was
said that the mother was anxious to nurse the child at
home, and the probability is that she took it away from town
fearing that otherwise the child might be removed to
hospital.
In both of these cases a serious offence was committed,
as the use of a public vehicle for the conveyance of
any person suffering from a dangerous infectious disease is
absolutely prohibited by Section 70 of the Public Health
(London) Act, 1891. Liability to a fine not exceeding ten
pounds was in each case incurred by some person. It is impossible
to gauge the amount of mischief which may have
been done through the exposure of the infected children in
the cab and in the railway carriage, neither of which, of course,
could be disinfected.
The Antitoxic Treatment of Diphtheria.—Reference
has already been made to the low rate of diphtheria
mortality during the year, which, doubtless, was the outcome
of the free use of antitoxin at the several hospitals of the
Asylums Board. In the report for 1896 (p. 46) I dealt somewhat
fully with this subject, in connection with the first
annual report (for 1895) of the medical superintendents of
these institutions, setting out their combined experience on
antitoxin in the treatment of this dire disease. The
conclusion arrived at was that in antitoxic serum they possessed
a " remedy of distinctly greater value than any other with
which they were acquainted." Subsequent experience has
served to confirm this view, and the serum has now secured
a permanent footing not only as a remedy but also as a
prophylactic. The Managers, it may be mentioned, have
entered into a seven years' agreement with the Laboratories
Committee of the Royal Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons