Space will not allow of a lengthened analysis of the statistics that have been published on this subject, and I will give only some of the more important statistical results. While, as we have seen, the average duration of pyrexia and articular pain under salicylate treatment is about 5.4 days, under moderate alkaline treatment, according to the recent statistics of Finlay and Lucas,[183] the average duration of pyrexia was 10.3 days and of articular pain 12.2 days, and of Owen[184] 6.5 days for the first and 8 days for the second, or a general average for the pain and pyrexia together of 9.25 days, or about 3.85 days longer than under the salicylate treatment. Nor can it be said even of the full alkaline plan that the first or second dose frequently relieves the articular pains like a charm. On the other hand, it has been already shown that the average time spent in hospital was five days less under the full alkaline than under the salicylate treatment.
[Footnote 184: _Ibid._, ii., 1881, 1081.]
As regards the relative power of the salicylates and of full alkaline { 61} treatment in protecting the heart, the following analysis and calculation deserve attention. The percentage of cases in which cardiac disease set in after the salicylate treatment began was, according to Powell, 18.75; according to Haviland Hall, 37.1; according to Finlay and Lucas, 11.60; Southey, 8; Brown, 4.76; Jacobi, 3.35, or a general average of 14 per cent.; whereas cardiac disease developed after the alkaline treatment had commenced in 13.6 per centum according to Blake;[185] in 10.7 per cent. according to Dickinson;[186] in 7 per cent. according to Owen; in 6.6 per cent. according to Finlay and Lucas; and in 2 per cent. according to Fuller; making a general average of only 7.8 per cent.
[Footnote 185: _Med. and Surg. Reports of Boston City Hospital_, 1st Series, 1870.]
[Footnote 186: This percentage is obtained by adding together all the cases treated by alkalies given by Dickinson in his IX., X., XI., and XII. tables. Their total was 65 cases in which the heart was affected seven times. In table IX. from drachm ii-iv of alkaline salts were given daily, and in table X. about drachm iij daily.--_Lancet_, i., 1869.]