THE BACILLUS OF TETANUS. 399 



toxin were then given the mare, so that it doubled its 

 original strength in one month. The milk increased 

 eightfold, but the foal's continued to lose in antitoxin, 

 although it was feeding on the antitoxic milk. 



Eesults of the Antitoxin Treatment in Tetanus. Tetanus 

 is a comparatively rare disease both in man and animals, 

 though in some localities it is more common than in 

 others. In New York city there are usually fifteen 

 to thirty cases following every fourth of July. Most of 

 them are caused by infection through blank cartridge 

 wounds. Recovery sometimes follows from the ordi- 

 nary symptomatic treatment or without treatment at 

 all, so that the statistics of cures of the disease by the 

 injection of antitoxic serum must be very carefully 

 sifted before they can be accepted as reliable. Lambert, 

 however, who has recently made an exhaustive study 

 of tetanus, states that in a total of 114 cases of this 

 disease treated with antitoxin, according to published 

 and unpublished reports, there was a mortality of 40.35 

 per cent. Of these, 47 were acute cases that is, cases 

 with an incubation period of eight days or less and with 

 rapid onset, or cases with a longer period of incubation, 

 but intensely rapid onset of symptoms; of these the 

 mortality was 74.46 per cent. Of the chronic type 

 those with an incubation period of nine days or more, 

 or those with shorter incubation with slow onset there 

 were 61 cases, with a mortality of 1 6.39 per cent. With 

 a still larger number of cases the results indicate that 

 with tetanus antitoxin about 20 per cent, better results 

 are obtained than without. The new method of inject- 

 ing from 3-15 c.c. of antitoxic serum into the lateral 

 ventricles has not, in the writer's opinion, shown itself 

 to be superior to the intravenous or subcutaneous 



