Page:The Indian Medical Gazette1904.pdf/48

 Professor Ruata, an Italian, is very severe on anti-rabic treatment. He asserts that the average mortality of rabies in Italy was about sixty- five per annum before the introduction of the Pasteur treatment; but this mortality has risen to 350 per annum with the founding of nine anti-rabic institutions, which treat about 3,000 individuals every year. He considers the muzzling of dogs to be the best way of diminishing the rabies mortality to zero. But in making such a statement he is sharply brought to book by The Abolitionist, in the following foot-note:— "We totally disagree with Professor Ruata in supposing that the troublesome (and often very cruel) muzzling orders of Mr. Walter Long have had anything to do with the disappearance of rabies in England, though the erection of Pasteur institutes has probably had a great share in multiplying cases of the disease by the excitement of the imagination on the subject." The uninitiated foreigner could scarcely be expected to know of the existence of the National Canine Defence League, which considers the muzzle to be a distinctly unsanitary method. It would scarcely be fair to quote the sentiments of a poet like Mr. William Watson, or an able essayist like Miss Frances Power Cobbe, so we have confined ourselves chiefly to the opinions of medical antivivisectionists, and we must confess that the writings of the latter appear considerably more virulent and less courteous in expression than the polished style of the former permits them to indulge in.

Well, the antivivisectionists have had a grand time, they have beaten their war-drums to some purpose in the Daily News, in their own special organ, and at their own meetings. They have also had a battle-royal in the law courts which has attracted considerable public attention, and they have been worsted in the fight as much by the evidence of their own witnesses as by the simple, straightforward testimony of their opponents.

 

The Treatment of Plague with Professor Lustig's Serum is a collection of papers written in a highly controversial strain on a subject that all must admit is very complex and abounding in pitfalls. Making due allowance for the manifold difficulties encompassing a thorough and practical trial of this serum, e.g., the poverty and poor physique of the bulk of the patients treated, the delay usually occurring before such patients came under treatment, the practical and financial difficulties in the preparation of the serum, and many other points urged by Dr. Choksy,—nevertheless, one must unwillingly admit that the results have not borne out Dr. Polverini's forecast of an increase in the recovery rate by some 20 to 50 per cent, by this means. Still we cannot help admiring the untiring perseverance and sanguine courage in a good cause, under most discouraging circumstances, evinced by Drs. Polverini, Mayr and Choksy. The last of these appears as the chief protagonist in the clinical application of this serum, and be has done well to record his observations, extending as they do over four successive epidemics of plague and comprising over 1,500 cases, though he might, with advantage, have exhibited less warmth and wealth of argument pro his cause, and less coldness and contempt for facts that were contra, and for unbiassed individuals not gifted with his perfervidum ingenium who came to conclusions differing from his own. However great may be the future prospects of an improved Lustig's serum, yet we cannot ignore such results as those of 1900-1901, viz., out of 104 cases treated with serum 81 died and 23 recovered, while out of 102 cases simultaneously treated without any serum 81 died and 21 recovered. The slight advantage of 153 per cent, in favour of this serum does not place it in the same category as anti-diphtheritic serum, which saves life without a shadow of a doubt, and we believe in far greater ratio than the mere 12 per cent, which Dr. Choksy credits it with. Moreover, compare the difference in dosage, and see how much remains to be desired in the reduction of bulk of Lustig's serum. In a series of 19 cases Dr. Choksy acknowledges the average dose to have been 400 cc, and that each of these cases received 1,000 cc of this serum. Indeed he confesses to 1,580 cc. injected into a lad of 15 years in the course of 20 days, 2,405 cc. injected into a man of 30 years in the same number of days, and as much 400 cc in four injections of 100 cc. each at intervals of four hours. Yet 14 died out of the 19 cases. Then, again, it requires a robust faith to argue confidently over the depressing results at the Maratha Hospital during April and May, 1902. It is true only 93 cases were tested, and such a small number cannot in fairness be considered a final or conclusive proof. Yet what do we find? It was agreed that the cases should be dealt with in series thus:—l, 4, 7, 10 with Lustig's serum;