of the throat. Sometimes, when the patient appears to be getting well, a sudden change for the worse rapidly carries him off. Hence the importance of great caution, in such cases, in giving an opinion as to ultimate recovery. I have said enough to prove the terrible nature of the disease, and to show the necessity of calling in, at the earliest period of the symptoms, an experienced and skillful medical man.
207. Is Diphtheria contagious?
Decidedly. Therefore, when practicable, the rest of the children ought instantly to be removed to a distance. I say children, for it is emphatically a disease of childhood. When adults have it, it is the exception, and not the rule. "Thus it will be seen, in the account given of the Boulogne epidemic, that of 366 deaths from this cause, 341 occurred among children under ten years of age. In the Lincolnshire epidemic, in the autumn of 1858, all the deaths at Horncastle, 25 in number, occurred among children under twelve years of age." 208. What are the causes of Diphtheria?
Bad and imperfect drainage; want of ventilation; overflowing privies; low neighborhoods in the vicinity of rivers; stagnant waters; indeed, every thing that vitiates the air and thus depresses the system, more especially if the weather be close and muggy; poor and improper food; and last, though not least, contagion. "Now all my carefully conducted inquiries induce me to believe that the disease comes from drain-poison. All the cases into which I could fully inquire have brought conviction to my mind that there is a direct law of sequence in some peculiar conditions of atmosphere between diphtheria and bad drainage; and if this be proved by subsequent investigations, we may be able to prevent a disease which, in too many cases, our known remedies cannot cure."—W. Carr, Esq., Blackheath. British Medical Journal. Bear in mind,
