Microbic Diseases Individually Considered. 285 



demonstrated by experimental inoculation, and its 

 causative agent has been brought to light by bacteri- 

 olo2:ical research. 



3Iicrobe.— The bacillus of tetanus, first described 

 by ISTicolaier, is a slender rod, measuring S/j. to b/j. in 

 length, homogeneous, or containing at one end an 

 enlargement in which appears a spherical spore of a 

 diameter double or quadruple that of the filament. It 

 has, therefore, wheu sporulated, the form ofa pin, 

 of which the brilliant, lustrous spore represents the 

 head. In wounds the bacillus sometimes attains a 

 len<>-th much greater than that indicated above. 



The bacillus of l^icolaier is motile, Y\g. 17. 



its movements resembling those of the i ^ ^ / 

 septic vibrio, but these movements * • *© 

 cease when fructification is accom- i ^ . 

 plished. It is anaerobic, multiplying / 



only when the atmospheric air is ex- Bacillus of te- 



. "1 , . f. T , 1 • tanus, sporula- 



cluded. A rarefied atmosphere is, ^^^ ^^^ ^^^_ 



however, compatible with its vitality, sporulated. (M. 



and this will account for its mutlipi- and L.) 



cation in free media, the aerobic germs protecting it 



from contact with too large a proportion of oxygen. 



The tetanus bacillus remains intrenched in the in- 

 fected focus and does not penetrate into the blood 

 during life; at the approach of death, or a certain 

 time after death, it may be found in remote parts in 

 which the deoxygenation of the blood has allowed of 

 its multiplication. 



The bacillus is met with in its two forms, homo- 

 geneous and sporulated, in the pus of wounds which 

 have given rise to tetanus, the sporulated form, how- 

 ever, being less abundant than the non-sporulated. 



