Remarks on antitoxin, diphtheria, the practitioner, and history : A practical view of antitoxin and diphtheria in private practice ; Antitoxin, diphtheria, and statistics / by Adolph Rupp.

  • Rupp, Adolph, 1856-
Date:
1899
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Remarks on antitoxin, diphtheria, the practitioner, and history : A practical view of antitoxin and diphtheria in private practice ; Antitoxin, diphtheria, and statistics / by Adolph Rupp. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    ness in the use of the term diphtheria. . . . While diphtheria prevails, it is usual to have at the same time a sore throat prevailing epidemically, which has but little tendency to the production of membrane. And as these two forms of disease are apt to go to- gether, physicians have been somewhat in the habit of grouping them under one head and considering them both diphtheria. The habit, it should not be forgotten, was not general; it was only somewhat so, not generally so. Not only Clark, but many physi- cians besides, thought it necessary to separate these synchronous affections, because the form of sore throat which is not attended by the production of membrane is a mild disease, and is almost never fatal. 1 The very term diphtheria, he continued, implies the ex- istence of a false membrane; and we must limit the signification of the word to such inflammations as ter- minate in or have in their course this membrane as a sign. Clark goes on to say, To make this mem- brane the basis of classification may not be scientific, but it is practical. And, he said correctly, science requires us to make distinctions where there are differ- ences. And here [between the benign sore throat and the diphtheria, as defined] we have the broad differ- ence that one disease is ephemeral, with a tendency to recovery; and the other is often [not uniformly so] terribly fatal, and is liable to a long train of symp- toms of a serious if not of an alarming character. Clinically and historically we have a true diphthe- ria varying much in severity as individual cases come and go; and clinically and historically a false or pseudo-diphtheria, which is a mild disease and very rarely fatal. These terms in their historical and clin- ical senses are unlike the same terms used by scien- tific physicians and bacteriologists of our day—the terms in their historical meanings stand for different things, and are conceived of in different ways. And 1 American Medical Times, March 23, 1861, p. 187.