A NEW CURE FOR DIPHTHERIA.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XV, Issue 4517, 7 September 1893, Page 2

A NEW CURE FOR DIPHTHERIA.

11l tlie Normandio Mtidicalo of Rouen thero is an interesting account of a new and so fm* wonderfully successful treatment of diphthora, which may bo interesting, Boeing that the complaint has broken out. in the Wairarapa. It appears that in tho village of NBuvillu-Cliarap'd'Oisel, about nine miles from Rouen, a malignant typo of tho disease broko out last year. The country doctor, M. Frederick Flahaut, treated the cases in the usual way, but tho deaths were numerous. Remembering, as be says, that tho English use petroleum as an antispasmodic and antiseptic, he de< termined to try it as an experiment. His first trial was in the case of : a little girl seven years old, He had already given hor up, aud proposed to the parents to make the experiment, which consisted in swabbing the throat with common petroleum. Ho had iittlo hope of the success of his now method, but to his astonishment he noticed an improvement after tho very first application. He continued the treatment, and the child recovered. Then lie tried it successfully with his othor patients, This year be baa 40 oases of diphtheria to treat, and ho was successful in every one, Jn order to be perfectly sure that the cases iu question were genuine ones of maliguant diphtheria, he had tho expectorated matter sub' mitted to the analysis of Professor Francis Hue, of tho Rouen College of Medicine, und theprofessor reported that he had clearly discovered tho presence in it of numerous bacilli of diphtheria. Moreover, his diagnosis was confirmed by IJrg Deshayes, Lerefait, and Bally, of Rouen, tho lasUnamed being the physician-in-ohief of the hospital of that city, Tho treatment presents little difficulty or danger. The swabbing is done every hour or every two hours, according to tlw thickness of tho membranes, which become, as it wore, diluted undor tho action of the petroleum, Tho brush, afkr being dipped m the petroleum, should bo shaken to prevent any drops falling into tho respiratory channels. The pationts experience relief from the very first application. The disagreeable taste of the petroleum remains for a few moments only, Dr, Flahaut has been interviewed by several reporters of Paris ; papers. He is a modest man, and ■ appnar? to be astonished at tbe noise : he is making to the French medioal world. He ought to become famous and rich, for lie has certainly struck]' oil, 1