The disease itself acts on the human body through the formation of poisons which the bacteria generate by their growth. If the germs have secured a foothold in the upper throat, then the well-known membrane is formed and the toxins produced spread through the blood and cause headache and fever, even before any experience of sore throat is felt. The temperature rises very high, the child begins to vomit, and the pulse becomes weak, and after about seven days a large percentage of these throat cases begin to improve. The membrane breaks off, the fever declines, and the child begins to recover. If the localized attack is in the larynx, a harsh cough is one of the symptoms, and this is soon followed by a serious difficulty in breathing. The poisons are formed, as before, in the blood, and, while a surgical operation has been performed often in the past to afford relief from the tendency to strangulation, the bacterial poisons are not affected thereby, and, while the operation might be successful, the child was quite apt to die as the result of the poisons. Now, in either case, antitoxin is administered at the very outset of the attack, with the result that the poisons are counteracted, the temperature drops rapidly, the membrane is apparently at once affected and lessened, and the child recovers at once. No greater boon to the human race in the matter of disease has ever been discovered, and it is certainly most absurd for parents to refuse the use of this wonderful antidote. Not long since, the writer found a family of four children in a home where diphtheria was rampant. The mother and two children were sick with diphtheria in its worst form, and the father refused to allow the doctor to administer the antitoxin even to those sick, much less to those who had been, up to that time, only exposed. Apparently there was no direct law requiring the administration of the antitoxin, and the physician in attendance and the health officer were obliged to stand by and wait for the death of the children, which actually happened, knowing that a dose of the antitoxin ready at hand could have been administered and the children's lives, in all probability, saved. The diphtheria poison is so virulent that in many cases it acts on the different organs of the body, particularly on the kidneys and the heart, and the recovery from this poison may take weeks. It is very necessary, therefore, for the patient to be kept quiet, and this can best be done in bed, for at least three weeks after the crisis has passed. The nervous system is often affected, so that the child may squint or stutter or perhaps not be able to see, but these effects are usually temporary and pass away as the effect of the poison disappears. _Rabies._