Diphtheria

The papers received by tho last mail f rom Europe mentioned tho death irom diphtheria of tho Frincess Marie, the daughter of the Princess Alice, and oue of the twenty-six grandchildren of Queen Victoria. At the same time four of the remiiining five children of the Princess and her hnsband, Primee Louis of Hesse, wero seriously ill of the same disease. According to the lutest, telegrams, it Las just broken out with great violence in the town of &eneva, New York, where, in the last week, thirtytwo childreu, nearly all between the ages of 10 and 16, had died of it. This is another ülustratidn of the theory, now thoroughly recognized in medicine, that new diseases, or new forms of au old disease, are constantly cropping out to tax the skill of physicians and stimulate all thoir ardor f or the advanccnient of scienee. It is stated upon good authority that but little niore than I twenty years ugo diphtheria, as a distinctive malady, was scarcely recognized aziiong general praetitioners. It then appear.s to have been almost entirely conflned to a single district in France, and was called " tlie Boulogno sore throat." It Boon appeared, nearly in its present fonn, in Xorfolk, in England, then in Wales, and afterward in London, where it was, for a tiüie, very destructivo. In the few intexveniug years it has spread everywhere, attacking 1 chiefly childrcn, but not sparing middle age ; and, to this day, there is a conflict of authority between Eüropean physicians upon the question whether it is a disease per se, or anothcr and an aggruvated variety of croup. - fílobe-Demncrat.