The primary therapeutic claim Quinton advanced for his marine dispensaries, directed at infant mortality from diarrheal disease and malnutrition in early-twentieth-century Paris. The claim rests on case reports and practitioner observations, with no controlled comparison group and no independent outcome measurement. The 1913 Stevens paper reports these results favorably but notes no quantified controls.

Modern assessment: infant enteritis and cholera-type diarrhea cause death through dehydration and electrolyte loss. Isotonic saline (whether pharmaceutical or seawater-derived) can provide rehydration sufficient to prevent death in many such cases. The therapeutic benefit, if real, is attributable to fluid and electrolyte replacement rather than to any property unique to seawater. This overlap between the functional effect of isotonic fluid replacement and the specific claim of “marine plasma” as a biological restorative makes the Quinton case a boundary case: there is a plausible mechanism for partial benefit (simple rehydration), but the claim of special seawater properties specific to life’s marine origin has not been replicated and is inconsistent with modern physiology. The French AMM for Quinton plasma preparations was revoked in 1993, indicating the evidence base was insufficient under modern regulatory standards.