CHAPTER XXXVI 



THE ANAEROBIC BACILLI. TETANUS AND BACILLUS TETANI. 

 BOTULISMUS AND THE BACILLUS BOTULINUS 



LOCKJAW or tetanus, 'though a comparatively infrequent disease, 

 has been recognized as a distinct clinical entity for many centuries. 

 The infectious nature of the disease, however, was not demonstrated 

 until 1884, when Carlo 1 and Rattone succeeded in producing tetanus 

 in rabbits by the inoculation of pus from the cutaneous lesion of 

 a human case. Nicolaier, 2 not long after, succeeded in producing 

 tetanic symptoms in mice and rabbits by inoculating them with soil. 

 In connection with the lesions produced at the point of inoculation, 

 Nicolaier described a bacillus which may have been Bacillus tetani, 

 but which he was unable to cultivate in pure culture. Kitasato, 3 

 in 1889, definitely solved the etiological problem by obtaining from 

 cases of tetanus pure cultures of bacilli with which he was able 

 again to produce the disease in animals. 



Kitasato succeeded where others had failed because of his use of 

 anaerobic methods and his elimination of non-spore-bearing con- 

 taminating organisms by means of heat. His method of isolation 

 was as follows : The material containing tetanus bacilli was smeared 

 upon the surface of agar slants. These were permitted to develop 

 at incubator temperature for twenty-four to forty-eight hours. At 

 the end of this time the cultures were subjected to a temperature 

 of 80 C. for one hour. The purpose of this was to destroy all 

 non-sporulating bacteria, as well as aerobic spore-bearers which had 

 developed into the vegetative form. Agar plates were then in- 

 oculated from the slants and exposed to an atmosphere from which 

 oxygen had been completely eliminated and hydrogen substituted. 

 On these plates colonies of tetanus bacilli developed. 



Morphology and Staining. The bacillus of tetanus is a slender 

 bacillus, 2 to 5 micra in length, and 0.3 to 0.8 in breadth. The 



1 Carlo e Rattone, Giornale d. R. Acad. d. Torino, 1884. 



2 Nicolaier, Inaug. Diss., Gottingen, 1885. 



8 Kitasato, Deut. med. Woch., No. xxxi, 1889. 



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