Bacilli Resembling the Tetanus Bacillus 363 



ily saved the animal if the antitoxin were injected into the brain 

 substance. 



Chauffard and Quenu,* who injected the antitoxin into the 

 cerebral substance, found that such administration brought about 

 an apparent cure in one case. 



Their observations were followed by an attempt to apply the 

 method in human medicine, and patients with tetanus were trephined 

 and the antitoxin injected beneath the dura and into the cerebral 

 substance. The results have not, however, been satisfactory, and 

 as the method cannot be looked upon as itself free from danger, it 

 has been abandoned. 



The only means of treating the disease to be recommended at 

 present is the intraspinous, intravenous and subcutaneous injection 

 of large and frequently repeated doses of the antitoxic serum. There 

 can be Httle doubt but that the administration must be so free as to 

 load up the patient's blood with the antitoxin in hopes that its pres- 

 ence there may detach the toxic molecules from their anchorage to 

 the nerve cells. 



Prophylactic Treatment.— While tetanus antitoxin is extremely 

 disapppointing, in practice, for the cure of tetanus, it is most satis- 

 factory for its prevention. " An ounce of prevention is better than a 

 pound of cure," and if the surgeon would administer a prophylactic 

 injection of tetanus antitoxin in every case in which the occurrence of 

 tetanus was at all likely, the disease would rarely develop. 



Bacilli Resembling the Tetanus Bacillus 



Tavelf has called attention to a baciUus commonly found in the intestine, 

 sometimes in large numbers in the appendix in cases of appendicitis, and looked 

 upon by one of his colleagues, Fraulein Dr. von Mayer, as the probable common 

 cause of appendicitis. He calls it the "Pseudo-tetanus-baciUus." 



The bacillus measures 0.5 by 5-7/i, is rather more slender than the tetanus 

 baciUus, and its spores are oval, situated at the end of the rod, and cause a slight 

 bulging rather pointed at the end. The bacillus is provided with not more than 

 a dozen flagella — usually only four to eight — thus differing markedly from the 

 tetanus bacillus, which has many. The flagella are easily stained by Loffler's 

 method without the addition of acid or alkali. The organism does not stain so 

 well by Gram's method as the true tetanus bacillus. The bacillus is a pure anaerobe . 



The growth in bouillon is rather more rapid than that of the tetanus bacillus. 

 It will not grow in gelatin. The growth in agar-agar is very luxuriant and 

 accompanied by the evolution of gas. Upon oTaliquely solidified agar-agar the 

 colonies are round, circumscribed, and often encompassed by a narrow, clear 

 zone, which is often notched. The spores are killed at 8o°C. 



The organism produced no symptoms in mice, guinea-pigs, and rabbits even 

 when 2-5 cc. of a culture were subcutaneously introduced. 



Sanfelicel andLubinski§ have observed a bacillus in earth and meat-infusions 

 that is morphologically and culturally like the tetanus bacillus, but differs from 

 It in not possessing any pathogenic powers. 



Kruself has also described a bacillus much like the tetanus micro-organism that 

 grows aerobically. It is not pathogenic. 



* "La Presse m€A.," No. s, 1898. 



t "Centralbl. f. Bakt.," etc., March 31, 1898, xxiii. No. 13, p. 538. 



X "Zeitschrift fiir Hygiene," vol. xiv. 



I "Centralbl. f. Bakt. u. Parasitenk.," xxi, 19. 



II Fliigge, "Die Mikroorganismen," vol. 11, p. 267. 



