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30
From this time onwards the chances of a successful issue will
diminish in proportion to the length of time which has elapsed
before the treatment is commenced. This, though doubtless
true Of other methods, is of still greater moment in the case of
treatment by antitoxin. Certain secondary effects not infrequently
arise as a direct result of the injection of antitoxin
in the form in which it has at present to be administered; and
even assuming that the incidence of the normal complications
of diphtheria is greater than can be accounted for by the
increased number of recoveries, we have no hesitation in expressing
the opinion that these drawbacks are insignificant
when taken in conjunction with the lessened fatality which has
been associated with the use of this remedy. We are further
of the opinion that in antitoxic serum we posses a remedy of
distinctly greater value in the treatment of diphtheria than any
other with which we are acquainted.
The Chairman moved that the report be circulated at the
discretion of the clerk to the press and the public.
In Paris before using serum the mortality from diphtheria in
the hospitals has scarcely ever been below 50 per cent.; since
its use, the mortality has fallen to less than 24 per cent., all of
the cases baing diagnosed bactariologically. In one of the
hospitals in Paris, from February 1st to July 24th, 1894, the
serum treatment was applied on four hundred and forty-eight
children, of whom one hundred and nine died, equal to 24.5
per cent. mortality. During the same time at this hospital,
where the serum treatment was not used, there were five
hundred and twenty cases, of which three hundred and sixteen
died, equal to 60 per cent. mortality.
During my recent visit to Paris I was much impressed by
this method of treatment as carried out bv our Parisian
brethren.
In one of the hospitals in Berlin. three hundred and three
cases were treated with serum, and had a per centage death-rate