7 o SCIENCE PROGRESS. 



originally employed by Brticke for the separation of the 

 ferments of the gastric juice. The chemical nature of 

 the toxine, according to Ouchinsky, resembles that of an 

 enzyme, a view supported by the earlier researches of 

 Roux and Yersin on diphtheria, and maintained by Arloing 

 and others. 



Since tetanus bacilli do not invade the organism, but 

 produce a toxine which passes into the system from the 

 area of inoculation, the observations of Courmont and 

 Doyon 1 lend support to the opinion that the toxic sub- 

 stances which cause tetanus result from the action in the 

 organism of a soluble ferment produced by the bacillus of 

 Nicolaier. These observers consider that the substance 

 that causes spasm is a poison like strychnine, which, acting 

 upon the extremities of sensory nerves, causes the typical 

 contractures. But this is not the essential tetanus poison 

 which appears to be a pathogenic ferment, since, if 3-4 cc. 

 of the filtrate of a tetanus culture be injected either sub- 

 cutaneously, or into the blood, or into muscle, a period of 

 incubation about 24-36 hours is found to exist, and this 

 period cannot be annulled by the injection of a hundred 

 times the quantity; the filtrate indeed has no immediate effect. 

 If, however, the blood of an animal with developed tetanus 

 be transfused, the recipient at once falls into the tetanic 

 state, which persists until the poison is eliminated. It is 

 evident that the substance or substances in the filtrate of 

 the bacilli have a totally different physiological effect from 

 substances present in the blood, and further, the muscles of 

 animals killed with tetanus filtrate yield a strychnia-poison 

 which resists prolonged boiling, while a temperature of 65 

 C. destroys the poison in the filtrate. These experiments 

 undoubtedly allow the conclusion that the substances 

 which engender tetanus result from the action on the 

 organism of a soluble ferment or enzyme fabricated by 

 Nicolaier s bacillus. 



The poison of tetanus is exceedingly easily destroyed. 

 Chemical and physical agents such as a temperature of 



1 Courmont et Doyon, Societe de Biologie, Nos. 10 and 21, 1893. 



