ingle
dose of calomel (three to five grains) is also useful for the same
purpose. The tincture of aconite should be taken hourly in three-drop
doses until five such have been swallowed, when the drug is to be no
longer used. The constant use of a hot flaxseed poultice (as large as
the whole hand and an inch thick, spread between thin layers of cotton
and applied as hot as can be borne, and changed every half hour) gives
more relief than anything else, and may possibly lead to disappearance
of the trouble if employed early enough. The use of the poultices is
to be kept up until recovery, although they need not be applied so
frequently as at first. A surgeon's services are especially desirable
in this disorder, as early puncture of the peritonsillar tissue may
save days of suffering in affording exit for pus as soon as it forms.

=DIPHTHERIA.=--The consideration of diphtheria will be limited to
emphasizing the importance of calling in expert medical advice at the
earliest possible moment in suspicious cases of throat trouble. For,
as we noted under tonsilitis, it is impossible in some cases to
decide, from the appearance of the throat, whether the disease is
diphtheria or tonsilitis. A specimen of secretion removed from the
throat for microscopical examination by a bacteriologist as to the
presence of diphtheria germs alone will determine the point. When such
an examination is impossible, it is always best to isolate the
patient, especially if a child, and treat the case as if it were
diphtheria. Diphtheria may invade the nose and be discoverable in the
nostrils. A chronic membranous rhinitis should be treated as a case of
walking diphtheria.

Antitoxin is the treatment above all other remedies. It has so
altered the outlook in diphtheria that, formerly regarded by
physicians with alarm and dismay, it is now rendered comparatively
harmless. The death rate has been reduced from an average of about
forty per cent, before the introduction of antitoxin, to only ten per
cent since its use, and, when it is used at the onset of the disease,
the results are much more favorable still. This latter fact is the
reason for obtaining medical advice at the earliest opportunity in all
doubtful cases of throat ailments; and, we might add, that the
diagnosis of any case of sore throat is doubtful, particularly in
children, whenever there is seen a whitish, yellowish-white, or gray
deposit on the throat. Antitoxin is an absolutely safe