176 SPECIAL EQUINE THERAPY 



the serum treatment would also have recovered under 

 other treatment. This conclusion was arrived at after a 

 more thorough trial than could be generally accorded a 

 remedy. The veterinarians were not hampered through 

 considerations of expense; they had hospital facilities, 

 ample assistance; in fact, everything was favorable for 

 the serum, if it had a trace of merit. In the light of this 

 and later experience with anti-tetanic serum, I can only 

 condemn it as a curative agent. (As a prophylactic, I am 

 just as positive that it has great value.) 



I use anti-tetanic serum now ih my tetanus eases, but I 

 use it in a different manner. I give two or three large 

 doses of it in the beginning, from 2,000 to 3,500 units at 

 a dose. I expect in this manner to get no results of a 

 curative nature. What I have in view in administering 

 the serum in this way is an effect that might be described 

 as a "shock absorber." I expect this quantity of anti- 

 tetanic serum to hold the toxins in abeyance, to dilute 

 them, at least long enough to enable the patient to 

 assemble all his bacteriolytic faculties. In plain words, 

 I give him an opportunity to "catch up" with the infec- 

 tion. This is all that can be expected of anti-tetanic 

 serum, all that can be claimed for it. And even this is 

 only a theoretical merit; it is not apparent. 



It is a sorry fact, but a true one, that for almost our 

 entire knowledge of the adaptability of various biologic 

 agents, we must rely on the manufacturers of such agents. 

 Only on this account do some of them continue to be 

 exploited and used. Anti-tetanic sermn for curative pur- 

 poses is one. 



Other forms of treatment. The treatment of tetanus 

 has in the past taken the form of fads. We have gone 

 through courses of treatment with phenol, magnesium 

 sulphate, tallianine, and, just now, we are in the grasp 

 of the lobelin fad. AU of these, as well as most of those 



