TETANUS TOXIN. 79 



this is meant that the relationship between a definite dose of toxin and the 

 amount of antitoxin just sufficient to neutralize it is constant, so that if ten 

 volumes of toxin hold in bounds ten volumes of 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 limited to 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 filtrates 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 neuro toxin, 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 last state appears first in the 

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

 almost regularly starts 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 disturb- 

 ances the entire set of complications being known as cerebral tetanus. 

 Rabbits receiving very small amounts of tetanus toxin intravenously die after 

 gradual emaciation and marked cachexia. This type of infection is desig- 

 nated by Doenitz as tetanus sine tetano. If taken per os, tetanus toxin 

 manifests no poisonous symptoms. Tetanospasmin is a distinct nerve poison 

 especially affecting the central nervous system. 



Experiments by Wassermann and Takaki have demonstrated an especially close 

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

 different animals. Thus in man, horse, and guinea-pig only the central nervous system, 

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



