The therapeutics of diphtheria / by A. Jacobi.

  • Jacobi, A. (Abraham), 1830-1919.
Date:
1888
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The therapeutics of diphtheria / by A. Jacobi. 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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    body. But the diphtheritic variety of follicular amygdalitis also is con- tagious. This mild variety is that from which adults are apt to suffer. It made me proclaim the warning that there is as much diphtheria out of doors as there is in doors; as much out of bed as in bed. With this variety the adult is in the street, in business, in the school-room, in the railroad car, in the kitchen and nursery. With this variety, parents while complaining of a slightly sore throat, kiss their children. Wherever it is suspected, it ought to be looked after. Where it is seen, it ought to be isolated and treated, less perhaps for the sake of those who are sick, than of those who are in serious danger of being infected. This is the more necessary, as this form is apt to last long and give rise to repeated attacks. But it is not only the mild variety which is liable to last long. Serious, undoubted cases are also apt to last for weeks, and some of them months. As long as they do persist they are contagious. These reminiscences and quotations from former writings must justify the preeminent place I claim for preventive treatment. Those sick with diphtheria, severe or mild, must be isolated. If barely possible, the other children ought to be removed from the house. This can but rarely be done in the homes of the poor, in the densely populated districts. A great charity is still waiting for its consum- mation, viz., that of erecting buildings, dormitories, and playrooms for those who ought to be temporarily exiled from their infected homes. A suggestion of mine, before the New York State Medical Society at its meeting of 1882, resulted in the erection of the Willard Parker Hospital of New York, for the benefit of those suffering from scarla- tina and diphtheria. The erection of a sufficient number of temporary homes would be a still greater blessing to the poor, and a greater pro- tection to the public at large. If it be impossible to send the well children away, let them remain outside the house, in the air, as long as feasible, and with open bedroom windows during the night, in the most distant part of the house ; during the winter on a lower floor. Their throats must be examined every day, and their rectal tempera- tures taken by the mother, so that the physician may be called on the occurrence of but slight changes. The few minutes spent in this way are amply repaid by the safety they may accomplish. The attendants upon cases of diphtheria must have no intercourse with the well chil- dren; though a brief visit of the physician may not render him sick, or dangerous to others, a long exposure affects him or a nurse to a greater or less degree. The well children of a family in which there is diphtheria, must not