PRINCIPLES OF VETERINARY SURGERY 425 



with the earth of the streets and fields, and found that most 

 of them exhibited symptoms of tetanus and perished. The 

 dogs he inoculated proved refractory. At the autopsies a 

 little pus was always found at the seat of inoculation. This 

 pus, inoculated into rabbits, caused tetanus in numbers, 

 while the inoculation of fragments of liver, spleen, spinal 

 cord, etc., gave no results. The microscopic examination 

 of the pus found at the point of inoculation revealed differ- 

 ent micrococci and a specific bacillus in the form of long, 

 lank, slender filaments, a little longer but less thick than 

 the bacillus of Koch's mouse septicaemia. Nicolaier im- 

 planted the pus deeply into a media of solidified sheep se- 

 rum and obtained pure cultures of the bacillus, which, when 

 inoculated into animals, produced tetanus. 



Rosenbach in 1886 found the bacillus of Nicolaier in the 

 wound of a man that had died' from tetanus. The tissues 

 of the wound inoculated into animals caused tetanus in 

 series. Cultures were obtained by punctures in solidified 

 media, and Rosenbach demonstrated that the bacillus is 

 anaerobic, and formed spores which develop into a. bacillus 

 having the aspect of a drum-stick or of a pin. He did not, 

 however, succeed in obtaining pure cultures. 



The discovery of Nicolaier was confirmed at every turn. 

 A great number of observers transmitted tetanus by inocu- 

 lations from the wounds of tetanic animals. Nocard in 1887 

 produced the disease in rabbits, cavies and a donkey by in- 

 oculating them with fragments of caseous matter obtained 

 from horses that died from tetanus following castration. 

 Since then the ^acillus of Nicolaier has been regarded as 

 the specific micro-organism of tetanus. Some writers con- 

 tested this action and claim to have isolated different tet- 

 anigenic germs, but their work fell fiat before that of Kita- 

 sato, who obtained pure cultures of the bacillus of Nicolaier, 

 and thus established its specificity in the year 1889. 



