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39
Within six months of the issue of the order, Dr. Goodall, Superintendent
of one of the Metropolitan Asylums Board's Hospitals, while
making it quite clear that he was most firmly convinced of the value of
antitoxin in the treatment of Diphtheria was equally strong in his
aversion to its use as a prophylactic, and quite frankly stated that an
indiscriminate use of serum as a prophylactic or preventative, is not
only unnecessary but unjustifiable.
That the general practitioner, and those to whom the carrying out of
the order is entrusted can steer a safe course with such diverging
opinion from experts seems impossible, but it is well that all agree as to
the great value of antitoxin serum for curative purposes, while we are left
to recognise that there is little room for dogma in medical science.