THE DANGERS OF DIPHTHERIA.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4233, 14 October 1874, Page 3

THE DANGERS OF DIPHTHERIA.

(From the Lancet, July 11.) The sad intelligence of the death of Lady Amberley, and subsequently of that of her little girl, from diphtheria, has not only given rise to much sympathetic sorrow, but will serve to awaken the recollection in other families of many similarly sad bereavements. Lord Amberley’s little daughter was supposed to have contracted the affection from her brother, who had a few weeks previously suffered from an attack of diphtheria, in London, and her ladyship is believed to have contracted the disease from attendance on her daughter. The poison of diphtheria is of a very subtle kind. It clings witli great tenacity to particular houses or apartments. The disease exhibits very contagious and infections properties, and its progress and , development are considered by many excellent authorities to be favoured by family constitution. We are inclined to believe in the correctness of this view of the greater susceptibility or vulnerability of certain constitutions, from the recollection of occurrences of a similar kind, where diphtheria spread through the members of a family, and proved fatal to the mother and some of her children without extending to other residents in the house. Of course, where there are local causes in operation, such as bad drainage and a vitiated house atmosphere, we may account for the tenacity with which tlie poison clings to a place, and manifests its action on the inmates ; but we nevertheless think that there is some evidence in favor of the existence of this family proclivity. There cannot be a doubt that every precautionary measure should be adopted which the assumption of the infectious character of this dire disease would suggest, but it must often happen that attempts at isolation are overborne and frustrated by the promptings of affection or parental ■ solicitude. A. mother will not submit—and no one can wonder at or help respecting the feeling—to be separated from a suffering child ; but no measures can be too rigidly enforced as far as the other and non-infected members of the family are concerned. The views entertained by different medical men, although substantially agreeing, are not, perhaps, perfectly identical in regard to the infectious character of diphtheria ; and this is to ho accounted for by the various impressions they have received from their different experiences of it. In some cases the transmission of the disease from one to another of the affected members of a family can be so clearly traced, whore there is an apparent absence of all insanitary surroundings, as to leave no doubt that contagion was the main if not the solo factor present, while in other cases the evidence of defective domiciliary hygiene is so conspicuous as to impress the mind with the direct relation of the disease to local causes ; and the apparent condition of a house is very often far from the real one. We had evidence of this not long ago, where, after the occurrence of one case, the family removed to the seaside for several weeks, during which the local tradesmen were desired to investigate and remedy every discoverable defect in the drainage. On the return of the family other cases occurred in rapid succession, and it was discovered that, notwithstanding the assurances to the contrary, the house drainage was very bad. The moral lies on the surface—viz., that diphtheria is, like scarlatina, a communicable disease, and that its spread may sometimes be wholly accounted for by its contagious or infectious properties, but that in any case the proclivity to the disease may be enormously increased by some defective drainage or other source of air contamination.