214 BACTERIA IN DAILY LIFE 



tetanus poison introduced under the skin suc- 

 cumbed to a small dose inoculated direct into 

 the brain, which would otherwise have not pro- 

 duced even a slight passing tetanic affection of the 

 limb where the inoculation was made. Immense 

 numbers of experiments were made under varying 

 conditions, but the result was fully confirmed, 

 showing that the nerve-centres had not acquired 

 any immunity to the poison, although the blood 

 serum of the victims to such cerebral inoculations 

 was proven over and over again to be endowed 

 with strong protective properties against tetanus 

 poison. 



The endeavour was then made to, in Dr. Roux's 

 words, "place the anti-toxin where the toxin is 

 working," and preserve the vital force of the 

 nervous tissue. To arrest tetanus by substitut- 

 ing cerebral for subcutaneous inoculations of the 

 anti-tetanic serum was the next feat attempted. 

 Several guinea-pigs and rabbits were inoculated 

 subcutaneously with virulent doses of tetanus 

 poison sufficient to kill them in about seventy 

 hours ; some were subsequently treated with anti- 

 toxic serum introduced in the ordinary way under 

 the skin, whilst others were inoculated with from 

 six to seven drops of this protective serum direct 

 into the brain. The results were extraordinarily 

 successful. Although but a few drops of the anti- 



