TETANUS. 2S7 



and guinea-pigs, gave rise to symptoms which he described 

 as tetanic in character. In from two to four days after 

 the inoculation the hind-quarters of the animal became 

 paralysed, first the one near the seat of inoculation, then the 

 other ; then rigidity came on followed by loss of motion ; the 

 forelegs were in turn affected, then the neck, and at length 

 the whole of the body became rigid, and sometimes curved as 

 in tetanic convulsions occurring in the human subject.' On 

 examination after death there was found, at the point of in- 

 oculation, a small abscess, in the pus of which were several 

 species of micro-organisms. One of these, when obtained 

 pure or practically pure, if inoculated into another animal 

 produced exactly the same symptoms. Nicolaier was not 

 able to obtain any perfectly pure cultivations, but he 

 described an organism which was afterwards separated by 

 Kitasato and by Tizzoni and Mdlle. Cattani independently. 

 This organism, although never directly demonstrated in the 

 earth that produced the disease, is constantly found in the 

 pus of the abscess, in the walls of this abscess, and even in 

 the immediately surrounding tissues. It occurs as long 

 delicate threads scarcely thicker than the bacilli of mouse 

 septicaemia with slightly rounded ends ; like some other 

 organisms, especially those met with in putrefactive pro- 

 cesses, they give rise to spores which are usually developed 

 at the end of the shorter rods into which the long threads 

 break up ; this spore, forming the head of what is called 

 the drum-stick-shaped bacillus, is usually large and may be 

 seen as a clear mass causing enlargement of one end of the 

 bacillus. The spore develops best at the temperature of the 

 blood, and undw favourable conditions is completely formed 

 about thirty hours after multiplication has commenced ; 

 at the temperature of the room this does not occur for about 

 a week, although the organism itself developes readily enough 

 at this temperature. The rods are motile. Owing to the fact 

 that the organism is anaerobic and that the presence of 

 oxygen interferes very greatly with its development (it is 

 said that oxygen kills it altogether), it proved a somewhat 

 difficult matter to obtain perfectly pure cultivations, although 

 when once it had been recognized that the organism was 

 anaerobic, plate cultivations were readily enough obtained 



' For further description of the disease see "Micro-Organisms," Dr. C 

 Fliigge, New Sydenham Society, 1890. 



