Key passage(s)
Translation
“Of the 200 patients who were all treated (injected) S p r o n c k‘s anti-diphtherial serum, one half (even numbers) received calcium, the other half (uneven numbers) [did] not [receive it], without considering gender, age or [the severity of] the throat affection. As much as possible the children were given in the same order the serum which was given on that same date [day]; thereby we wanted to achieve that the children of one of the two groups (categories) did not receive per chance a very poisonous serum. It is well known that the serum from a given horse shows often – frequently only for a short time – more side-effects than the serum from other horses. In order to eliminate these nocuous side-effects, S p o r c k mixes the sera from several horses and warms them during half an hour up to 56 – 57°C. Of our 200 patients 92 were female and 108 male. The case histories of those who died (9=4.3%) were not considered [for the analysis]. The distribution according to the age was: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 <10 years 26 31 26 36 24 15 9 8 7 4 14 number Approximately half of the children in each age group received calcium chloride, the other half not.”
Translation by Ulrich Tröhler