Show THE TREATMENT OF or diphtheria to the editor of the scientific american I 1 wish to make known to the public a method of treatment for diphtheria which has been uniformly successful in the tho practice of the writer during a number of years which included two epidemic ies les and in a large number of cases not a case has been lost since this 3 treatment was adopted I 1 feel confident that by its general use the mortality may be reduced to one per par cent or even less I 1 have heretofore delayed publishing the results in order to make sure th that attlio attile the tho treatment was really what it promised to be and I 1 now nov wish to use the columns of your journal in order that the public generally may have the knowledge in their theirs own possession i an attack of diphtheria is usually ushered in with a high fever angl angi ani headache and in children with ri and vomiting thure is great wo upon the ton sils am ant surrounding parts are seen white snow flak fiak flaky P patches t es in malig malignant ilant cases t the patches abc ate atc lies lles are often yellow ellow or brownish and a terrp terri I 1 odor olor is perceived ti i remedy found successful srul by the is permanganate of potash in conjunction not nol nob not combi iia tia tion with the tincture of na the method of administration is as fol foi follows lowr lowe from prom 2 to 3 grains not I 1 more note of the per manganato permanganate are dissolved in from irom 2 to of water in a goblet five drops of tile the officinal tincture of or belladonna or better from 10 to 20 drops of the tho de decimal cl mal mai homoeopathic tincture of the same drug are put into another gobet goblet with au an equal quantity y 2 to 4 gozs of water A teaspoonful is to be taken from each goblet alternately at intervals of a half or one hour it is perhaps need needles lesi lest to say that separate spoons should be used anti and the goblets kept covered in twenty four hours frequently i a favorable change will be seen but quite as ag often tile the disease seems to go on unchecked save pave that the fever may seem a little more moderate but I 1 can assure my readers that during the second day of the treatment a most marked change will take place the tile fever will entirely subside the mind will brighten the tongue will begin to grow clean and the deposits upon the will peel off oftay at their edges or gradually break away the patient will be upon the tho highway to recovery and a day or two more of the treatment will bring back the normal hue of health and an appetite to correspond in rare cases however when the tho constitution is bad a longer ume time five six seven u lays days maybe may may be required but even her here the treatment has not failed I 1 think that under this treatment diphtheria is not a dlease disease to bo be dreaded by the profession the belladonna may in in special cases case find a substitute but not th the ep permanganate er of potash the on only 1 case in which the above treatment will promise unsatisfactory results is when the disease rapidly invades the larynx and bronchial air passage diphtheritic croup when suffocation threatens to supervene before the remedy ean can act or when the meio melo mere mero presence of large detached deposits in the air tubes imperils im perils the success of the case such an instance recently occurred which was successfully treated with inhalation of the vapor not the spray of a dilute aqueous solution of bromine I 1 know that the permanganate has been used as a disinfectant locally applied in putrid diphtheria heretofore in dilute form as a gargle and upon general principles as an antiseptic but I 1 am not aware that the persistent use th throughout rou hout bout the disease has heretofore been beed made known to the public or profession that it does as an antiseptic is shown by the tho fact that tho other antiseptics have no analogous effect that it does not act locally may be inferred because its marked curative effects appear in the system before they are seen in the the theory of the writer is that diphtheria finds its nutriment in partly devitalized organic matter in the tho blood which the permanganate rapidly absorbed attacks and destroys by oxidation being berng the most powerful non poisonous oxidizer wo we have thus cutting away the pabulum of the disease when the deposits die a natural death and disappear uis Appear the process certainly sometimes appears lna ina magical leal ical in its action I 1 trust that if others employ this treatment they will not attempt to modify it t hilj they have first given give h it a fair trial in the manner above proposed I 1 have also found the permanganate gana to of potash very successful in the treatment of certain slow forms of putrid and typhoid fevers with loaded tongue foul breath ete etc and in recurring boils this lends additional force to the theory of its acton action above indicated I 1 am sure that this drug so rich in oxygen the life giver bo eo harmless in its action upon the human system will well repay study by the profession fe assion gene generally rally raily which it has heretofore only received and that in a very inadequate degree from the tho branch I 1 W HEYSINGER philadelphia pa scientific american |