TETANUS. 57 



EXAMINATION OF Pus FROM SUSPECTED CASES OF 

 TETANUS. 



Requisites. i. Slides and cover-glasses. 



2. A stiff platinum loop. 



3. Bunsen's burner or spirit lamp. 



4. Loffler's blue or carbol thioriin. 



5. Materials for Gram's staining. 



6. Balsam. 



If cultures are to be taken add a pipette (see p. 41), 

 a deep tube of agar to which two per cent, of grape- 

 sugar has been added previous to sterilisation, a flask of 

 water, and a thermometer. 



Method. Scrape the deeper portions of the wound 

 with the platinum loop and spread out the secretion 

 thus obtained on the surface of a slide. Prepare several 

 of these slides, and fix the film by heat. Stain some by 

 the simple stain for two minutes and others by Gram's 

 method. 



The bacillus of tetanus is about as long as the 

 tubercle bacillus and is very slender. It stains by 

 Gram's method. A very characteristic feature is its 

 method of spore-formation. The spores are spherical 

 bodies which are formed at the extremities of the bacilli, 

 giving them the appearance of pins or drumsticks. The 

 spores do not stain by the ordinary stains, and appear as 

 colourless and highly refractile bodies (Plate II., fig. 2). 



The cultures are made in agar to which 2 per cent, of 

 grape-sugar is added, and the needle or pipette used in 

 making the inoculation is plunged deep down into the 

 medium. The bacillus of tetanus is an anaerobe, i.e., it 

 grows only in the absence of oxygen. The stabs are 

 made deep in order to inoculate the material far away 



