The value of antimeningitis serum in the treatment of epidemic cerebro-spinal meningitis / by A. Gardner Robb.

  • Robb, A. Gardner.
Date:
[1909?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The value of antimeningitis serum in the treatment of epidemic cerebro-spinal meningitis / by A. Gardner Robb. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    this way. No change in the severity of the attacks was observed : in the three months immediately before the serum arrived with us, 45 cases came under treatment, of whom 37, or 82 per cent., died ; and in the first four months after we began its use in hospital 30 cases were treated, of whom 8 died, a. mortality of 26‘6 per cent.; while of the 34 cases occur- ring in the City in the same period but not sent into hospital, and not treated with the serum, over 80 per eent. died. Great as this change in the death-rate has been, it is not more striking than the improvement in the course run by the cases ; for whereas it was common to have cases running on into weeks and even months, such cases are no longer met with; the duration of illness in those who do recover has been greatly reduced, and with this reduction there has also been a marked dimiuution in the number of serious compli- cations and sequelae occurring. More recently similar antisera have been produced in other places, notably in Germany, and encouraging reports are being collected from districts in which they have been employed. It is true that sufficient serum for the treatment of hundreds of cases can now be produced from a single horse with what amounts to little more than in- convenience to the animal, but it is also true that this serum could only, in the first instance, have been obtained, and sufficiently tested to warrant its use in human subjects, by repeated experiments on animals in the laboratory. Belfast, Jamuiry, 190f).