TETANUS. 115 



tetanus after an ovariotomy. Hogksinger has confirmed 

 the above-mentioned observations by carefully conducted 

 experiments, the material for which was furnished by a case 

 of tetanus arisina; from a very slight injury to the hand, 

 the wound bein^ filled with dirt. Shakespeake has suc- 

 ceeded in induoino; tetanus in rabbits by inoculating them 

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

 mule, both of which had died from traumatic 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 cases of tetanus among seventy 

 persons injured by the falling of a church from the 

 earthquake at Bajardo. The bacillus of Nicoi.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. 



Beumee 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, and died four days later from 

 tetanus. From this he concludes that tetanus neonatorum 

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

 should be dressed antiseptically. 



Kitasato has succeeded in isolating the bacillus of 

 Nicolaier 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 carbonic 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 Pescabolo found in the pus of 



