Excerpt from The Review of Reviews, Vol. 11: An International Magazine; January-June, 1895

Whereas in European cities the bat tle of the municipal and health au Chi'd'e D'sease thorities, so far as epidemics were concerned, was until a few years ago waged chiefly against small-pox, typhus, and occasional outbreaks of cholera, it is now considered that the victory has in the main been won against these bolder and grosser enemies of the race, and the conflict has set in against the diseases which are hostile to child life. Scarlet fever and diphtheria are the chief of these children's maladies, with measles as a less dreaded but ex tremely mischievous third. Thus far the weapons have been mainly those of vigilant, never-ceasing in spection, immediate isolation, disinfection through the aid of highly organized official disinfecting staffs, and in general the sharp blocking up of those avenues through which infection is most likely to be commu nicated. The difiiculty of perfect isolation in tene ment houses has led to the great extension of public hospitals for the reception of children ill with diph theria, scarlet fever and measles. The great objects of the administrators of the public health system are (1) to abolish the plague spots which are the sources of infection, and (2) when infection has appeared to prevent its spread. This of course is the sound policy to be pursued. But, (3) and concurrently, every pos sible effort is made to save the lives of the poor chil dren actually seized with infectious maladies. If we are rightly informed with regard to the anti-toxins cure for diphtheria, its application is to be beneficial both as a preventive against attack and also, whe re not previously applied, as a remedy to be adminis tered in the early stages of the disease. Its immedi ate interest naturally lies in its use as a remedy. A considerable amount of experience, tested in the light of comparative statistics. Would be necessary in order to show the preventive value of such treatment, and even then it would be difficult to distribute the honors between a remedial specific of this kind and a gener ally efiicient sanitary administration. As in the case of vaccination, no one could ever tell us conclusively what part the particular treatment has played, and what part improved conditions of public and private cleanliness have had in the gratifying diminution of the malady.

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