BAD EFFECTS OF SERUM

Antitoxin is contained in the blood serum of horses, which have been injected with diphtheria toxins, and cannot be entirely separated from other parts of the serum. The antitoxin itself probably produces no disturbances, but the serum sometimes causes hives and other inconveniences which quickly pass away. Probably no person with diphtheria has been permanently harmed by antitoxin. A few instances of death have followed the use of small immunizing doses in persons who were not sick and were subject to “horse asthma”. Such cases can be counted on the fingers of the hands and appear insignificant when contrasted with the hundreds of thousands of injections given during the same time. Diphtheria in one week causes five to ten times as many deaths as antitoxin serum in thirty years. In our large cities as many children are killed daily by motor vehicles as have died from antitoxin serum in thirty years. In the presence of the enormous danger from diphtheria, we can ignore the infinitesimal danger from the serum.