Of all the contagious diseases diphtheria is most thoroughly
understood. The cause is known, its method of spread understood, and
the way in which it acts to bring about the disease has been clearly
demonstrated. For its prevention and cure we have certain measures.
In spite of this it continues to be one of the most dreaded and fatal
diseases of children. Diphtheria is an ancient disease and has appeared
in destructive epidemics in Europe and America for two hundred years.
It caused the death of George Washington, and the empress Josephine and
her grand-child, heir apparent to the French throne, died from it. As
early as 1771 it was epidemic in New York and in 1856 an epidemic in
San Francisco occurred in which few children attacked by it recovered.
Before antitoxin came into use in 1894, of those attacked, one-third
to one-quarter died, and in hospitals often 60 to 80 per cent of the
cases terminated in death. After antitoxin came into use many more
recovered, but for some years now little improvement in the prevalence
and fatality from diphtheria has occurred. In Chicago from 1911 to
1920, there was an annual average of 7,358 cases and 813 deaths from
diphtheria. Of those dying, 63 per cent were children below school age,
and 90 per cent were children less than 10 years of age.