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improvement, on the evening of the fifth day there
was a relapse; the report says, "very bad diphtheritic
membrane all over the soft palate." Antitoxin was
again injected, with decided relief. The child
eventually recovered.
Having become convinced of the value of the
Antitoxin Serum in the treatment, I increased the
amount injected, and nearly every case, excepting it
was of an exceedingly mild character, was so treated,
and a reference to the percentage of deaths in each
year is a corroboration of its value. It has, however,
become more and more apparent that the earlier the
treatment is commenced, the greater the hope of
recovery.
As shewing the importance of early treatment
with antitoxin, I find in the report of the M.A.B. the
following:—
Mortality of cases treated on the 1st day of disease, 0 0 per cent.
„ ,, 2nd ,, 5.09 „
„ „ 3rd ,, 14.38 „
„ „ 4th „ 18.11 „
,, ,, 5th day and after 22.5 ,,
In 1897 and 1898, during the time that Stone-bridge