The Indianapolis Journal

ANTI-TOXIN SERUM.

Dr. Kinyon's Observations in Berlin—Inspectors Needed.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 29.—The officials of the United States Marine Hospital Service are watching with interest the results obtained from the new diphtheria cure. The officials are already in possession of considerable information as to the manner and results of applying the anti-toxin in Berlin and Paris, and the bureau recently published two reports made by Dr. J. J. Kinyon, who visited the children's hospital at the former place and the Pasteur Institute at Paris to study the methods in vogue there. The Doctor's report of his visit to the Pasteur Institute has already been made public. At the children's hospital in Berlin, Dr. Kinyon says, the larger proportion of cases suffering from diphtheria are treated. There were about thirty-five cases in the hospital at the time of his visit, and their age was usually less than six years. The methods of giving the injections of anti-toxin and the time for their administration are much the same as in the Pasteur Institute. The death rate is slightly lower than the figures of the Paris hospitals, for the reason that in the first place the patients are sent to the hospital sooner, and because the little children receive better care than is accorded them in like institutions in Paris. Dr. Kinyon goes into a very elaborate description of the methods and practices employed in the hospital in the treatment of the disease. The matter of the control or supervision of the use of anti-toxin is also engaging the attention of the local authorities, and Dr. Kinyon reports that on Nov. 4 Prof. Koch convened a meeting of the Prussian Board of Health for determining what action should be taken in that regard. Prof. Koch had expressed the opinion that there should be some government supervision of the serum that it could always be relied upon. If there was no such supervision it would not be long before spurious articles would be put on the market, and not only would a good remedy be brought into disrepute but lives would be sacrificed when they might be saved. It was decided at the meeting of the board that all serum intended for use in Prussia should be inspected and tested for its purity and strength before it would be allowed to be used. This step, the Doctor reports, was satisfactory to all the parties concerned, and will be the means of insuring a good article of standard strength at all times for Prussia. In this connection Dr. Kinyon calls attention to what he says will evidently occur in our own country. Many persons will, during the coming year, commence to prepare the serum as a business enterprise, and there will without doubt be many worthless articles called anti-toxin thrown on the market. All the serum offered for sale, he believes, should be made or tested by competent persons. The testing, in fact, should be done by disinterested parties. "The anti-toxin," he says, "will never work miracles; it has its limits, like any other agent, and, like a perfect piece of machinery, will not accomplish the full result unless directed by a skilled hand. Some persons affected with this dread disease will succumb, it matters not how soon the remedy is applied. The majority will, however, I am sure, recover if the anti-toxin is given early and properly." In closing the report he expresses the hope that soon every State and municipality will take the proper steps to provide facilities for supplying the remedy to the people. Incorporated in the report are a number of tables or charts showing the effects on the respiration, pulse and temperature of the administration of anti-toxin in various cases.