432 



TETANUS 



bacilli, both in its natural habitats outside the body and in the 



pus of wounds, other 

 spore - forming obliga- 

 tory and facultative 

 anaerobes occur, which 

 grow faster than the 

 tetanus bacillus, and 

 thus overgrow it. 



(2) If in any dis- 

 charge the spore-bearing 

 tetanus bacilli be seen 

 on microscopic examina- 

 tion, then a method of 

 isolation based on the 

 same principle as the 

 last may be adopted. 

 Inoculations with the 

 suspected material are 

 made in half a dozen 

 deep tubes of glucose 

 bouillon, previously 

 After inoculation they are 





FIG. 126. Spiral composed of numerous twisted 



flagella of the tetanus bacillus. 

 Stained by Rd. Muir's method, x 1000. 



raised to a temperature of 100' 

 again placed in boiling 

 water and kept for vary- 

 ing times, say for half a 

 minute, for one, three, 

 four, five, and six 

 minutes respectively. / 

 They are then plunged / 

 in cold water till cool, /' 

 and thereafter placed in 

 the incubator at 37 C., V 

 in the hope that in one \ 

 or other of the tubes all 

 the organisms present 

 will have been killed, 

 except the tetanus spores 

 which can develop in 

 pure culture. A series FIG. 127. Tetanus bacilli ; some of which 



of deep glucose agar 

 tubes may also be in- 

 oculated from the series 

 of bouillon tubes. 



possess spores. From a culture in glucose 

 agar, incubated for three days at 37 C. See 

 also Plate IV., Fig. 20. 



Stained with carbol-fuchsin. x 1000. 



(3) Anaerobic plates may be prepared directly from the dis- 



