During the past three years the literature on the treatment of burns has been prolific. Most of the articles have dealt with some one phase of the subject. Blood studies in shock due to burns and the correction of blood imbalance have come in for particular emphasis.
This communication is intended to be more comprehensive. It stresses again the improvement in the mortality rate due to the use of plasma in the treatment of shock accompanying severe burns. In addition, it undertakes to discuss other important factors concerned in the clinical management from the time of the accident to eventual cure or death. The article comprises two comparative series, one of 188 cases encountered from 1930 to 1939, the other of 92 cases occurring from March 1939 to November 1941. The reason underlying the comparison is that the latter series has been under the uniform management of a burn service