THE WONDERS OF MODERN MEDICINE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13831, 18 August 1908, Page 4

THE WONDERS OF MODERN MEDICINE.

Dr. Allen Starr, in an article in Harper's, has some very striking passages on the wonders of modern medicine. What for instance, could be more eloquent of the advance of a science which some people are inclined to belittle than the following facts: Just as quinine acts to counteract malaria, so the antitoxins counteract the symptoms of the various diseases in which they are used. If used early in the disease, they are most efficacious, and even ii used late they are of service. This is proved by the fact that in 1893, before the antitoxin of diphtheria was treed, there were 6468 cases in New York hospitals, of which 1962 were fatal — par cent.; while in 1906 there were 7444 cases and only 73.1 deathsi.e., 9 per cent. In London in 1394. there were 3666 cases, of which 1035 were fatal; while in 1901 there were 7622 caseu, of which only 849 were fatal. In America, among 5576 private cases, not in the hospitals, in 1896, only 491 were fatal. Taking the cases the world over, it may be slated that the mortality in diphtheria has been reduced from 35 per cent, to 9 per cent. There are, again, few diseases more drttded by the doctors than cerebrospinal meningitis, or spotted fever. There was no means of treatment known last year, when 812 persons died in New York from it. The mortality in the epidemic was 79 per cent. Under the new antitoxin treatment the mortality is reduced, to 29 per vnt., end will be much more reduced when the methods of application are more fullv perfected.