Show jhc thc treatment of diphtheria from to the editor jf scientific american I wish to mako known to tho public a method of treatment for diphtheria which lias been uniformly successful in the practice of tho writer during a number of years which included two epidemics and in largo number of casan not a case has been lost lib treatment wn adopted feel confident by ita general use the mortality may be reduced to one per cent or even leas I have heretofore delayed publishing alio results in order to make sure that the treatment was really what it promised to be and I now wish to use the columns of your journal io in order hat alio public generally may leavo lie knowledge in possession an attack in usually ushered in with a high fever and and in children nau ea and vomiting there h gnat prostration upon the tonkin and surrounding parts are seen white snow flaky in malignant cases anre often yellow or brownish and a terrible odor is perceived the remedy found by lie writer is permanganate in conjunction not combination with the tincture of belladonna the method of adamini iteration ii an follows from to grains not more of alio are dissolved in from to oza of water in a goblet five tincture turo of belladonna or better from 10 to 20 drops of the la decimal horn copat hie tincture of the same drug aro put into another goblet with an equal quantity to gozs of water A teaspoonful i to be taken from each goblet alternately at intervals of a liala or one hour it is perhaps needless to say that separate spoons should bo aed and the goblets kept covered in twenty four hours frequently a favorable change will bo seen but quite ai often the disease seems to go on unchecked save eliat the fever may seem a little more moderate but I cau amre my readers that during alio mccond day of the treat mental most marked change will anke place the fever will entirely subside alio mind will brighten the tongue begin to grow clean and the deposit alio will peel off at their edges or gradually break away the patient will be upon the highway to recovery and a day or jwo more of alie treatment will bring back the normal hue of health and an appetite to correspond in rare cases however when the constitution is bad a longer time five six seven days may be bequir ee but even hero the treatment has not failed I think that under this treatment diphtheria is not a disease to be dreaded by the profession the belladonna may in special cae find a substitute but not the permanganate of potash thornly case in which the above treatment will promise un satisfactory results is when the disease rapidly invades lie larynx and bronchial air passage diphtheritic croup when suffocation threatens to supervene before the remedy can act or when the mere presence of large detached deposits in the air tubes imperils im perils alie success of the case lucli an instance recently occurred which wat successfully treated with inhalation the spray of a dilute aqueous solution of bromine I know that alio I s been used as a disinfectant lo cilly applied in putrid diphtheria dip theria hereto fore in dilute from as a gargle and upon general principles as an antis eppic but I am not awre that the persia tant ue throughout has heretofore been made known to alie public or profession eliat it does not act aan antiseptic ii shown by alio fact that tho other have no analogous effect eliat it does not act locally may be inferred be cause its marked curative effects op pear in the system before they aro seen in alie the theory of alio writer h eliat diphtheria finds its nutriment in part devitalized organic matter in the blood which the permanganate rapidly absorbed at tacks and destroys by oxidation being the most powerful non oxidizer we have thus cutting away alio pabulum of alio disease when the deposit die a natural death nl disappear the process certainly sometimes appears magical in its action I that if others employ this treatment they will not attempt to modify it till they leave first given it a fair trial in the manner above proposed I have alo found taci pr manga nate of potash pota sh very successful in the treatment of certain alow forms of putrid and typhoid fevers with loaded tongue foul breath etc and in recurring boils thiis lends addi force to alio theory of its c tion above indicated I am sure that aliis drug w rich ill oxygen alie life giver so harmless in its action upon the human system will well repay study by lie generally which it has heretofore only received and that in a very degree from the branch I W philadelphia pa an old irish soldier who had fought in the battle of bull run when asked if he had retreated and made good his escape as others did on that famous occasion replied de jabers those that run arc there yet no darling he said as hla wife asked fora new dress I cant afford it I feel it my duly to help the yellow fever sufferers and then he went around the corner and the barkeeper handte out a bottle and a glass and let him help himself husband md ati ophelia mcmunn As she gazed at her willful and passionate son where that boy got his temper I never could sec he never could take it from me no doubt my dear afe your as bertion as true I never hive misad any you |