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produced by inoculation with such soil. This appears to me to be a 

 strange conclusion, as it is a very common practice of mine, on seeing 

 a wound showing signs of healing, to leave it exposed to the action of 

 the air, and to order fine dvy soil to be dusted over the raw surface. 

 The soil I find to be a good absorbent and deodorizer, and, as a 

 rule, the wound heals quickly. I cannot call to mind a single case 

 of tetanus followmg this treatment. There, however, must be 

 something, either in the air, surface soil, or temperature, to account 

 for this disease, as, during a period of 40 years, only one case of 

 tetanus in a horse, at the bottom of one of the many coal mines 

 visited, has come under my own observation ; yet, as a rule, the 

 principal portion of the cases met with in the pit-bottom are wounds 

 in the feet. 



611. There are three terms used to designate the varieties of 

 tetanus, viz: — (i.) — Opisthotonos : when the head is pulled upwards 

 and backwards, and the tail is raised by the tense contraction of the 

 muscles of the back ; (2.) — Empyosthotonos : when the head is depressed 

 and pulled down ; and (3.) — ■Plenrosthotonos : when the head is drawn 

 to one side. The first form is mostly observed in the horse, but the 

 last two I have never seen in the horse, though I have noticed them 

 in the human subject. 



612. Tetanus generally makes itself manifest from about the sixth 

 to the tenth day after an accident or operation, just when the wound 

 is healing. If the wound is closely examined, it will be observed, should 

 infection have taken place, to have a peculiar dusky copper colour, 

 and not that bright strawberry-red seen in healthy granulations. The 

 organism, or bacillus, that is supposed to cause the malady, is said to 

 confine itself to the wound and its immediate surroundings, and it 

 excretes or manufactures a material, which, being absorbed into the 

 tissues, acts upon the nervous structures, and produces the disease. 

 With reference to these disease-producing germs, spores, microbes 

 or bacilli, — in other words, the seeds of the disease, — they have, for 

 some time past, been experimented with by a number of microscopists 

 in the laboratory, and there cultivated, grown, and tested with suitable 



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