TETANUS. 115 



i' 1:11111- after :ni ovariotomy. HoCKSIXGER has confirmed 

 (lie above-mentioned observations by carefully conduct* < I 

 e\p riiiients, tin- mat-rial for which was furnished by a case 

 of tetanus arising from a very slight injury to the hand, 

 the wound brin ir fillr<l with dirt. SHAKESPEARE has suc- 

 renled in inducing: tetanus in rabbits by inoculating them 

 with matter taken from the medulla of a horse and of a 

 mule, l>oth of which had died from traumatie tetanus. 

 These uniform observations leave no room to doubt that 

 tetanus is often, at least, due to a germ which exists in 

 many places in the soil, and that the disease is transmissible 

 by inoculation. 



BONOME observed nine eases of tetanus among seventy 

 I Arsons injured by the falling of a church from the 

 earthquake at Bajardo. The bacillus of NlCOT-AiER was 

 detected in the wounds, and animals inoculated with the 

 lime-dust of the fallen building died of tetanus. Of many 

 persons Injured by the falling of another church at the 

 same time, none had tetanus, and animals inoculated with 

 the lime from this church suffered no inconvenience. 



The same experimenter found the bacillus in the wound 

 of a sheep which died from tetanus after castration. 



BEUMER found the tetanus bacillus in the sloughing 

 tissue of the umbilical cord of a child which was taken ill 

 on the sixth day after birth, ami died four days later from 

 tetanus. From this he concludes that tetanus neonatoruin 

 and " earth tetanus " are identical, and advises that the cord 

 should be dressed antiseptically. 



KITASATO has succeeded in isolating the bacillus of 

 Nieolaier by growing the mixed cultures, from the pus of a 

 wound on a man who died from tetanus, at a high tempera- 

 ture (80), and subsequently developing the germ under 

 hydrogen. The bacillus grows only in the absence of air, 

 and not. in earl ionic acid. It develops on agar, blood-serum, 

 and gelatin, the last of which it gradually liquefies with the 

 formation of gas. The growth is more vigorous when the 

 nutritive medium contains from 1.5 to 2 per cent of grape- 

 sugar. 



In 1888 BELFANTI and PESCAROLO found in the pus of 



