Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1894-11-29
: THE CITIZEN
The New Treatment Of Diphtheria.


The practical tests which have been sp-
piled to antitoxin, the new remedy and
also apparently preventive of diphtheris,
have proved very satisfactory. NJ. Rou1,
OF the Iustitut Pasteur proves the efficacy
of the new treatment Of diphtheria by a
five months test, and finds that injections
of the anti-diptheritic serum reduce the
death-rate from 81 to a per cent in hospi-
tai practice.
Nothing is so conclusive as success in the
actual use CT new remedy. This French
physician began 10 treat diphtheritic child
ren with antitoxin in February last in the
isolation wards of the hospital. Previous
to this date the desth-rate of diphtheria pa
tients averaged 5l.7l per cent; in 1890 it
exceeded 80 per cent, while in the three
following years it iell slowly TO AGA. But
since February l, 1894, when the serum
treatment was commenced, AS children
have entered the diphtheria wards of the
hospital and only 100 less than one fourth)
of them Succumbed 10 the terrible disease.
any doubt arises as to TO whether the
aatiCoxin Is To be credited with having
IN .de the death-rate one-half of what II had
hitherto been, that doubt seems to be Ie-
moved by the fact that in another Paris
hospital (the Trousseau) in which antitox-
in was not used the mortality among 500
diphtheria cases was BIG, or 60 per cent? As
all ether respects the two groups of pa
tlents were apparently subject to similar
conditions and circumstances in their re-
spectiye hospitals, the great difference in
the number of cures seems clearly and
fairly attributable TO the serum treatment
alone.
ASThe results reported in Berlin have been
as conclusive as those in Paris. Professor
Adolf Baglnsky, NJ. D., of Berlin, writes
to the New Y ork Medical Record
The results obtained by the use of anti
toxin have been reported by my assistant
pny sican, DR. KatZ From March IA until
July Is, l63 cases of diphtheria were treat
ed, including numerous malignant cases
OF this number only % died, 80 that the
mortality was II 81 per cent. This excel
lent percentage has never yet been equalled
with our best form of treatment even in
the mildest epldemics Among the fatal
cases there were several tuberculOus child
ren and several whose genuine diphtheria
was complicated with scarlet lever, so
that the mortality of uncOmplicated cases
of dipntheria will be much less.
1t therefore appears, as d. Bsginsky says,
that the new remedy deserves further trial
aud that if 1t gives "even more beneficial
results than heretofore, th9n we have in the
blood serum therapeutics inaugurated by
Behring one of the greatest triumphs IN
the annals of medicine"
The philosophy of the new treatment is
not hard To understand. The microbes OF
diphtheria, as those of other like diseases,
do their deadly word not directly, but by
secretiug poisonous substances or toxines
in the system Medical authority points
out that by means of certain N anipulations
tue virulence OF those tOxines can be atten-
uated or increased, 50 that scale of tox-
ines can be created of which the lowest
will nave no special action on the organ
ism, while the highest will act with light
ming rapidity. I'll now," as he says, IAN
animal be successfully inocnlated with the
entire series of these toxlnes, beginning
with the weakest, its organism becomes
accustomed to their action, so that finally
a refractory condition to given microbe
i, created for that animal"
The anti-diphtheritic serum used by NJ
Roux, of Paris, is taken from horses on
which immunity from diphtheria has pre-
viously been conferred. Each patient re-
ceives systematically single injection OF
twenty cubic centimetres of this serum.
Twenty-four hours later second injection
is made of twenty or ten cubic centimetres,
and in most of the cases these two injec-
tions have suffced 10 insure recovery.
With such reliable statistics before them
American physicians, who often in autumn
and winter have to contend with serious
epidemics of diphtheris, will be enabled to
view his old foe in new and less sombre
light. We commend to them the clos
ing words OF foreign medical correspon-
emit
Since by this treatment only one out o.
four dlphtheritic patients succumbs, where-
as the figure Is dOu1le for the other meth
ods OF treatment, 1t Is very desirable that
that the auii-diphtherltlc serum should
come into general use at The earliest possl-
moment.