| Number treated. | Number died. | Percentage of mortality. | |
| Non-specifically treated | 377 | 69 | 18.3 |
| Treated with calomel | 223 | 26 | 11.7 |
| Treated with iodine | 239 | 35 | 14.6 |
| Total | 839 | 130 | 15.5 |
The preceding table, which is taken from Liebermeister's article on typhoid fever in Ziemssen's Cyclopædia, is based upon the results of treatment in 839 cases, a part of which were treated with iodine, a part with calomel, and a part with neither, the rest of the treatment being exactly alike in all of them, and consisting in the employment of a partial antipyretic method.
James C. Wilson108 has recently used with great success in the treatment of typhoid fever the following prescription, which was originally suggested by Roberts Bartholow: Rx. Tinct. Iodinii fl. drachm ij.; Acid. Carbolici liq. fl. drachm j.—M. Of this, one, two, or even three drops is given in a sherry-glassful of ice-water after food every two or three hours during the day and night. In addition to this prescription his patients were given a dose of calomel varying in amount from seven and a half to ten grains, which was repeated on every alternate night until three or four doses had been administered in the course of the first six or eight days. Of sixteen cases so treated, none proved fatal, although eight of them were severe, the temperature reaching or exceeding 104° F. Da Costa109 has used carbolic acid in this disease, and has found it useful in controlling the diarrhoea and in lowering the temperature, but suggests the use of thymol in doses of from half a grain to one grain as a substitute, on account of its greater acceptability to the stomach. C. G. Rothe110 recommends a mixture of carbolic acid, tincture of digitalis, tincture of aconite, brandy, and tincture of iodine. Its use causes a decided fall of temperature and diminution in the frequency of the pulse.
108 Transactions of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, 3d Series, vol. vi., Philadelphia, 1883, p. 221.
109 Ibid., p. 234.
110 Deutsche Med. Wochenschr., 1880.
My own experience does not enable me to speak with positiveness of the value of this plan of treatment. Indeed, it has been used in so few cases, to the exclusion of all other remedies, that it is difficult to decide how far the result attained in cases treated by them is due to them, and how far to the other therapeutic means employed. With the testimony of such competent observers as those above named it is only proper that the treatment by iodine and carbolic acid should have a further trial. More caution, it seems to me, is required in the use of calomel. While it is probable that in a few cases the intestinal lesions may be favorably modified by the purgation which it induces, the indiscriminate use of the drug is, I am sure, calculated to do more harm than good.