EFFECT OF MOCCASIN VENOM ON URINARY CHANGES IN SCARLET FEVER

PROCEDURE Forty-two boys, aged from 5 to 14 years, with scarlet fever were selected at the Willard Parker Hospital for these observations. (Girls were not included because of the difficulty of obtaining uncontaminated specimens of urine.) Twenty-two were treated with injections of moccasin venom (1:3,000) subcutaneously, and twenty others were used as controls, the division being arbitrary on admission of the patients. Patients who had received scarlet fever antitoxin were excluded.The administration of moccasin venom was begun on admission, usually on the second or third day of illness; the plan of treatment was to give courses of eight, twelve or sixteen injections. The dose for the first injection was 0.5 cc.; if there was no untoward reaction, 1 cc. was given daily thereafter until half the course was completed; the remainder was administered in doses of 1 cc. every other day. In most of the cases there was a