86 TOXIN AND ANTITOXIN 



100 volumes of toxin neutralize 100 volumes of antitoxin. This relation 

 is best exemplified by the diphtheria toxin and antitoxin. With the other 

 toxins, conditions are more complicated so that many objections have 

 been raised against the above rule of multiple proportions. (Bordet, 

 Arrhenius, Madsen, etc.) 



The true toxins causing infections in man are the 



1. Diphtheria toxin. 



2. Tetanus toxin. 



3. Botulism toxin. 



4. Dysentery toxin. 



5. Staphylolysin and similar bacterial hemotoxins. 



Tetanus Toxin. 



The tetanus toxin is found within nitrates of bouillon cultures 

 Tetanus of the tetanus bacillus. While partial erobiosis does not 

 Toxin. entirely eliminate toxin formation, anerobic conditions are by 



far more favorable for it. The tetanus toxin is of two kinds; 

 the tetanospasmin, and tetanolysin; the former a neurotoxin, the latter a 

 hemotoxin. The tetanospasmin is the more important of the two for the 

 reason that it is the agent which produces convulsions. If susceptible 

 animals such as mice or guinea-pigs are injected subcutaneously or intra- 

 muscularly with tetanus toxin, after a certain interval the incubation 

 period they will begin to show symptoms due to tetanospasmin. They 

 become hypersensitive to reflex stimulation; clonic convulsions and toxic 

 rigidity of the muscles set in. In animals the spasms appear first in the 

 group of muscles nearest the point of injection, while in man they 

 almost regularly start in the muscles of the lower jaw. By intravenous 

 and intraperitoneal injections, the tetanic spasm appears simultaneously 

 in all muscles of the body; on intracerebral inoculation, Roux and Borrel 

 describe the occurrence of epileptiform seizures, polyuria and certain 

 motor disturbances the entire set of symptoms being known as cerebral 

 tetanus. Rabbits receiving very small amounts of tetanus toxin intra- 

 venously die after gradual emaciation and marked cachexia. This 

 type of infection is designated by Doenitz as tetanus sine tetano. If 

 taken per os, tetanus toxin manifests no poisonous effects. Tetanospas- 

 min is a distinct nerve poison especially affecting the central nervous 

 system. 



Experiments by Wassermann and Takaki have demonstrated a close affinity 

 existing between the tetanus toxin and certain organs. These organs differ in different 

 species of animals. Thus in man, horse, and guinea-pig only the central nervous sys- 

 tem, while in rabbits in addition to this, also the liver and spleen take up the tetanus 

 poison. If an emulsion of brain tissue and a fatal dose of tetanus toxin are mixed and 

 the mixture injected into mice, the latter remain unaffected. According to Doenitz 



