110 TOXINES AND ANTITOXINES. 



The toxic effect is generally considerably increased when the 

 poison is introduced by subdural or intercerebral injection. 

 Thus, for example, the otherwise comparatively refractory hen 

 can be poisoned fairly readily by the intercerebral injection of 

 tetanus poison. We will deal with the probable cause of this on 

 a later page. 



The phenomena on intravenous injection are the normal ones, 

 but the incubation period is somewhat longer. When introduced 

 into the stomach tetanus poison is practically non-poisonous. 

 RANSOM 1 concluded that it passed unchanged through the in- 

 testines, and claimed to have found it again in the faeces. 

 CARRIERS, however, and numerous other investigators were 

 unable to detect any toxine in the excreta after the introduction 

 of large doses of toxine per os. CARRIERS 2 accordingly made 

 experiments to determine where tetanus toxine becomes in- 

 nocuous. He found that the poison was attacked even by the 

 saliva diastase, that pepsin was less injurious, that trypsin had 

 a considerable action upon it, and that bile in large quantity 

 completely destroyed it. He could not detect any influence of 

 the intestinal mucous membrane and the intestinal bacteria upon 

 the poison, although FERMI and PERNOSSI had found it to be 

 very pronounced. NENCKI and SCHOUMOW-SIMANOWSKI 3 assert 

 that the digestive fluids render it completely innocuous, and 

 notably the bile in conjunction with the fluid from a pancreatic 

 fistula, whilst trypsin alone has less effect, being less injurious 

 than pepsin. YiNCENZi, 4 on the other hand, states that normal 

 bile has hardly any destructive influence, but that the bile of 

 animals infected with tetanus has a slight effect under certain 

 conditions ; thus, for example, death inevitably follows in three 

 to four days when the bile is active. On the other hand, the 

 poison is somewhat weakened by the oxydase of the leucocytes, 

 and, according to SiEBER, 5 is completely destroyed by the 

 oxydase of the spleen. 



It is absorbed with great rapidity on subcutaneous injection. 



1 Ransom, "Das Schicksal d. Tetanusgiftes nach seiner intestinal 

 Einverleibung," Deutsch. med. Woch., 1898, 117. 



2 Carriere, "Toxines et digestion," Ann. Past., xiii., 435, 1899 (gives a 

 bibliography of the subject) ; cf. the General Part. 



3 Nencki and Schoumow-Simanowski, "Ueber die Entgiftung der Toxine 

 durch die Verdauungsafte," Centralbl. f. Bakt., xxiv., 84 ; cf. Dzierzgowski 

 and Sieber, Archiv. des Sciences Biol. de St. Petersb., viii. 



4 Vincenzi, " Ueb. antitoxische Eigenschaften der Galle tetanisierter 

 Tiere," Deutsch. med. Woch., 1898, 534. 



5 Sieber, "Ueb. d. Entgiftung der Toxine durch die Superoxyde, &c.," 

 Z. f. phys. Ch., xxxii., 573, 1901. 



