Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1909-09-03
THIS GLAND MAY PUT
ANTI.TOXIN ON SHELF
Has No Effect, German Scientist
Finds, Once Blood Pressure
Begins to Fall.


ing prejudice in America, as in Eng
land and Germany, against dipth-
iberia antitoxin on account of the
number of children who die after II
Is administered. even when the
dipththeria itself has been apparent
ly overcome, has led Prof. Fitz
Meyer to make an exhaustive inves-
| tgation of the subject.
AS Is well known, the immediate
cause of death in dipththeria is
( heart failure in the vast majority of
cases. Whether this is due to true
myocaritis or Inflammation of the
muscular substance of the heart. or.
on the contrary, to an injury to the
nervous mechanism of the heart. has
never been certainly known to medi-
cal men. They have been in doubt,
| too, as to the curative effect of the
antitoxin once the lowering of the
blood pressure through heart trou-
BILE has made its appearance.
But on one point there is no con-
troversy, namely, that many chill
dren di in from two days to n
month after the use of the antitoxin,
mainly from kind of paralysis
ending in sudden heart failure.
Many parents and not few physi-
| clans have thus been led to suspect,
that the antitoxin itself has ten
dency to poison the patient by para
lying the heart. II was to deter
mine this important question Prof.
Meyer undertook his experiments.
Experimental on Rabbits.
! The investigator used large
number Of rabbits In his expert
ments. and studied carefully the eff
feet of diphtheria toxin and anti
toxin given in various doses, ut
various times, by injection into the
veins in some cases and under the
skin in the ordinary way In other
cases. BY creating the diphtheria
by giving fatal doses of the toxin at
different periods after the antitoxin
he found, first, he says, that anti
toxin, II administered early in sufii-
cient doses absolutely prevents the
cardiac or heart symptoms indlca-
tive of the fall In blood pressure;
second, that the antitoxin, when
given later, but before the actual
fall in blood pressure, delays its ap-
pearance; third. that the antitoxin
when given after the fall In blood
pressure is without effect in staying
or preventing, or curing. the fatal
heart symptoms.
Prof. Meyer found, by dissecting
the rabbits, that the toxin or diph-
iberia produced true myocarditis In
from six to eight days. Very large
doses of the toxin killed the animals
before the myocarditis appeared. and
very small doses produced no effect.
The heart symptoms developed also
when only small doses of anti toxin
were used. The heart changes were
found In cases in which the annals
! died at the end OF week, and also
in rabbits which survived n month
and were then killed by the expert
menter.
What 1t Will Do.
lie says the antitoxin, therefore
will prevent paralysis or heart fail.
ure during or after the course Of
diphtheria, provided 1t Is given un,
, der the skin in large doses of from
1000 to 5000 units and repeated
frequently. When this is not
promptly effective. he says. from
: 10000 to $4,000 units of the anti
toxin should be injected into vein
But he utters special warning that
the doctor must be sure the anti
toxin Is sterile and free from any
, preservative. e.
During his experiments Prof. Mey'
er made the discovery that the toxin