DIATUSSIN
Dr. I. Fleiss, New York, writes:
“Please state the value of Diatussin, of Bischoff & Co, in pertussis. Since pertussis is such an intractable disease, anything which promises improvement is apt to attract the physician’s attention.”
According to an advertising circular, issued by E. Bischoff & Co, purporting to be a “reprint from the Munich Medical Weekly,” Diatussin is “... a dialysate of Herbæ Thymi and Pinguiculae.” The latter is said to be known in the Alps as “blue fatweed.” The only further information as to the composition of this preparation is the statement that “the dialysate of this blue fatweed is said by the manufacturer to contain a proteolytic ferment.” The writer of the article recounts how, after trying a host of remedies, he finally had such success in the treatment of whooping-cough that “... a whole procession of mothers with children affected by whooping-cough came to me from a neighboring village, only because several children from this place had been quickly cured by the dialysate.” Nevertheless, while the “procession of mothers” appears to have been impressed by the virtues of Diatussin, the writer of the article, rather modestly for contributors of this sort, admits that “I am, of course, well aware, that the small number of cases under my observation allows of no decisive conclusion; it is only the object of these lines to interest a wider circle in tests.”—(From The Journal A. M. A., May 17, 1913.)