Democratic Sentinel, Volume 1, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 December 1877 — DIPHTHERIA. [ARTICLE]

DIPHTHERIA.

A Care for tlie Dreaded Disease. [From the Scientific American.} Dr. E. N. Chapman, of Brooklyn, N. Y., has discovered an antidote to the poison of diphtheria, by which the percentage of deaths is reduced to less than one in fifty. Statistics show that the percentage of recoveries in cases treated under the usual practice is thirteen, or eighty-seven out of 100 sufferers succumb to the fell disease. 0 Diphtheria first appeared in this country in 1858. Dr. Chapman, in 1859, lost several oases, and became distrustful of the regular methods. He had been using aToohol in the cure of ship-fever, and he determined, though contrary to all rules, to try it in diphtheria. To his surprise, several of his patients recovered. He tried qmnia, and found it acted well, but not so quicklv. At last he settled on a combination of the two, alcohol and quinia, and with these remedies he claims that diphtheria is more amenable to treatment than many common diseases. In an epidemic, such as diphtheria, all are affected by the morbific agent, but a few only yield to it. Mature, vigorous persons have vitality enough to resist the disease. Children and weakly adults are its usual subjects. Dr. Chapman considers that there is, almost always, superadded a local and direct exciting cause, such as defective exercise, improper diet, dark rooms, damp houses, imperfect ventilation, and poisonous emanations from decomposing filth in privies, cesspools, sewer-pipes, etc. To such agencies the strongest constitution will soon succumb. The blood being deteriorated, its vitality is lowered; and then the sympathetic nerves, failing to receive due stimulus, waver in their efforts to carry on the animal functions. “All local treatment,” he says, “is worse than useless. It exhausts the nerve force, and induces greater injection of the blood vessels, thus favoring the exudation. “Alcohol neutralizes the diphtheretic poison, sets free the nerves of animal life, subdues the fever and inflammation, destroys the pabulum that sustains the membrane, cuts short the disease, conquers its sequelae, and shields other members of the family from an attack. Upon the subsidence of the fever, as is usually the case in from twenty-four to thirty-six hours, a purulent secretion begins to loosen the membrane, and soon, thereafter, to detach it in flaky, ragged fragments. This process may take place, and recovery be possible, even when the larynx and trachea are implicated. The membrane is seldom renewed, when this secretion is maintained by a steady use of the remedy. Alcohol is as antagonistic to diphtheria as belladonna to opium, or quinia to malaria. Like any other antidote, it must be given promptly at the outset, or otherwise its potency will be lessened, perhaps lost altogether. ‘ ‘Alcohol does not act as a stimulant, nor induce any of its ordinary effects. Enough may be given to cause profound intoxication in health, and yet there exists no signs of excitement or odor in the breath. ” Quinia is an efficient alloy to alcohol. It energizes the ganglionic nervous system, and thus enables the organism to right itself and resume its function. Dr. Chapman sustains his position by citing numerous cases in which this treatment was successful. He states that, in his long experience, ne only knew of one case where a drunkard had diphtheria. He generally gives the alcohol in the form of whisky.