In again consenting to present a paper on the subject of intubation, it is with the thought that increased experience and the accumulation of a larger number of cases may be a more convincing proof of the utility of the operation.
It will be seen that out of the first 100 cases, there were 27 recoveries; of the second 100, 34; the third 100, 40; the fourth 100, 38, and out of the last 66, 22.
It is often said that intubation is done early, and that this accounts for the large percentage of recoveries, but this is a great mistake. The operation is only done as a last resort, and often after the patient has become moribund and unconscious. Not infrequently patients have been in extremis before I have been summoned, and upon arriving have been found dead. More than nine-tenths of these cases have been seen and operated upon