Inoculation by injection of serum ob tained from convalescents. Freymuth (Deutsche med. Woch., Oct. 25, '94).
Solid substance obtained from residue of culture-fluid freed of inicro-orga»isins as imniunizing agent. Ransom (Deutsche med. Woch., July 18, '95).
Substances found in blood of conva lescents afford inconstant immunity. Sobentheim (Hyg. Rund., p. 145, '95).
Haffkine's inoculations in India in creased safety of inoculated twenty times. W. J. Simpson (Brit. Med. Jour., Sept. 21, '95).
Out of 3276 uninoculated persons, 47 cases; out of 2936 inoculated, 3 eases. Powell (Indian Med. Gaz., No. 7, '95).
Kitasato's auticholera serum used in 193 cases. The former rate of mortality (among Japanese) has been about 70 per ecut. In these cases the percentage was lowered about 20. The subsidiary results were similar to those of diph theria antitoxin: 1. Urticaria, very common. 2. Arthralgia, observed in only IS cases. 3. in 6 eases. A. Nakagawa (Brit. Med. Jour., No. 1855., p. 121, '96).
Summary of all the observations in India upon Haffkine's anticholera inocu lations. 1. The inoculations even in the larger doses hitherto used do not confer a complete immunity. 2. A con siderable degree of immunity seems to be conferred when the doses injected are sufficiently large to produce marked fe brile reaction. 3. Smaller doses confer little or short-lived protection. Arthur Powell (Lancet, No. 3803, p. 109, '96).
Complete report of the results of the antieholeraic inoculations performed in Calcutta during two years. Among 654 uninoculated persons there were 71 deaths, while among the 402 inoculated individuals in the saine households there were 12 deaths: a reduction of mortality of 72.47 per cent. The results in Cal cutta are fully confirmed by reports from other parts of India, which are also given. Simpson (Indian Med.-Chir. Rev., July, '96).
Epidemic in 1895 in the town of Midna pore, Bengal, in which the method sug gested by Hankin of disinfecting the wells by permanganate of potassium was used. It undoubtedly cut short the epi demic, statistics showing the value of the method. O'G'orman (Indian Med. Gaz., July, '96).
Referring to the researches which have shown that the protective action of the cholera serum is strictly specific, and is due to the presence of specific bacteri cidal substances: The serum Of persons inoculated with cholera vibrios contained these substances, aud not bodies anti toxic to the cholera poison belonging to the vibrios themselves. The value of
inoculations emphasized in India, al though the protectiou lasts only a year. Kolle (Deutsche med. Woch., Jan. 1, '97).
Detailed statement of results of anti cholera inoculation. In Gaya jail, of 433 prisoners, 215 submitted to inoculation, after cholera had appeared in the prison. Among the inoculated there occurred 8 cases, with 3 deaths; among the unpro tected, 20 eases, with 10 deaths. Haff kine (Dublin Jour. of Med. Science, Feb., '97).
The number of micro-organisms in well-water may be materially reduced for several days by placing potassium permanganate in the well. Attempt to check choleraic outbreaks in India by putting the permanganate salt in the wells of villages in which the outbreaks occurred. Enough was used to give the water a pink color until the following day, generally two or three ounces, and the procedure was repeated every third or fourth day. As a result, the cholera outbreaks were of shorter duration, and cases fewer in these villages than in those using water from wells that had not been so treated. E. H. Hankin (Brit. Med. Jour., Jan. 22, '93).
Inoculation against cholera strikingly influenced the total number of cases and deaths, but the proportion of deaths to cases was not influenced. Conclusion therefore rcached that there are two kinds of immunity: one against the liv ing microbe and one against the fatality of the symptoms of the disease caused by the products of the microbe. Haff kine (Lancet, June 24, '99).
Treatment.—The treatment of cholera is still a rnuch-vexed question, no specific remedy having been found to directly combat the infection, while serum-ther apy is only yet in its • incipient stage. It would be impossible to refer to the numberless methods which have been proposed and tried with variable result; I must, therefore, limit myself to the general rules which experience, a knowl edge of the biology of the pathogenic microbe, and of the influence it exerts upon our system have indicated to be the most rational.