OCCURRENCE OF TETANUS 507 



Roux and Yersin's method of precipitation with calcium 

 phosphate. It contains no phosphorus and only traces of 

 sulphur. Of the most active preparation 0-00000005 grin, 

 killed a mouse. 



In a case of tetanus examined by Sidney Martin, an 

 albumose, chiefly deutero-albumose, was extracted from 

 the blood. Injected into an animal it produced depression 

 of temperature, followed by progressive wasting, but no 

 spasm or paralysis. 



The toxin is destroyed by heating to 80 C. for half an 

 hour. 



Occurrence of tetanus. Man and the horse are most 

 subject to natural tetanus ; cattle and sheep are rarely 

 affected. The disease in man usually follows the infliction 

 of a wound, particularly if this is lacerated and contused 

 and soiled with earth ; this constitutes the form known 

 as " traumatic tetanus." Tetanus spores may occur in 

 the soil in some districts, and they are frequently present 

 in the dejecta of cattle, horses and other animals, and 

 occasionally of man. Infection of the soil with tetanus 

 spores is prone to occur in the surface layer of highly cul- 

 tivated and manured ground, and tetanus was relatively 

 frequent during the War in the intensively cultivated 

 districts of France and Belgium. The Solomon Islanders 

 used to tip their arrows with mud containing spores, and 

 wounds inflicted therewith were frequently accompanied 

 by tetanus. 



The wound serves as a local manufactory of the toxin, 

 and the tetanic symptoms result from the absorption 

 of the toxin and its fixation by the central nervous 

 system. The researches of Ransom and Meyer showed 

 that the toxin travels mainly by the motor nerve 

 trunks (see p. 188), and not by the blood vessels and 

 lymphatics. 



The organisms associated with the tetanus bacillus in 



