had been made,
they showed a remarkable and even astonishing reduction of mortality,
fully confirming the conclusions drawn from the German experiments. This
consensus of independent opinion proved a great stimulus to further
trial, and before long one _clinique_ after another told the same tale.
The evidence was so favourable that Professor Virchow--the last man to
be carried away by a novelty--declared it "the imperative duty of
medical men to use the new remedy" (_The Times_, 19th October 1894).
Since then an enormous mass of facts has accumulated from all quarters
of the globe, all testifying to the value of antitoxin in the treatment
of diphtheria. The experience of the hospitals of the London
Metropolitan Asylums Board for five years before and after antitoxin may
be given as a particularly instructive illustration; but the subsequent
reduction in the rate of mortality (12 in 1900, 11.3 in 1901, 10.8 in
1902, 9.3 in 1903, and an average of 9 in 1904-1908) added further
confirmation.

_Annual Case Mortality in Metropolitan Asylums Board's
Hospitals._

Before Antitoxin. | After Antitoxin.
Mortality | Mortality
Year. per cent. | Year. per cent.
|
1890 33.55 | 1895 22.85
1891 30.61 | 1896 21.20
1892 29.51 | 1897 17.79
1893 30.42 | 1898 15.37
1894 29.29 | 1899 13.95

The number of cases dealt with in these five antitoxin years was 32,835,
or an average of 6567 a year, and the broad result is a reduction of
mortality by more than one-half. It is a fair inference that the
treatment saves the lives of about 1000 children every year in London
alone. This refers to all cases. Those which occur in the hospitals as a
sequel to scarlet fever, and consequently come under treatment from the
commencement, show very much more striking results. The case mortality,
which was 46.8% in 1892 and 58.8% in 1893, has been reduced to 3.6%
since the introduction of antitoxin. But the evidence is not from
statistics alone. The beneficial effect of the treatment is equally
attested by clinical observation. Dr Roux's original account has been
confirmed by a cloud of witnesses year after year. "One may say," he
wrote, "that the appearance of most of the patients is totally