336 IMPORTANT VARIETIES OF FISSION-FUNGI. 



tetanus and terminate in recovery. General exaltation of 

 reflexes may be absent. In man and horses after subcu- 

 taneous infection the first symptoms are not local, but 

 consist in a stiffness of special muscles — in man, the 

 muscles of mastication; in horses, the muscles of masti- 

 cation, membrana nictans, and those elevating the tail. 

 Pure cultures cause no suppuration at the point of inocu- 

 lation; the organisms remain limited to the site of inocu- 

 lation and do not spread throughout the body. 



According to Vaillard and Rouget (A. P. vii, 755), 

 tetanus spores which are well washed, or freed from toxins 

 by long heating to 80°, are harmless; trauma, metabolic 

 products, admixture with other bacteria, protection of the 

 spores by coverings, are necessary, in order that tetanus 

 shall be produced. Other writers, as Roncali (C. B. xv, 

 439), dispute this; also, according to Donitz, spores which 

 were heated to 65° for one hour in 10% solution of chlorid of 

 sodium retained their virulence (Deut. med. Wochenschr. , 

 1897, No. 27, 42.S). The introduction of sterile tetanus 

 toxin may kill animals with the symptoms of tetanus. A 

 high degree of active immunity against tetanus may be 

 produced by careful, repeated injections of sterile toxins, 

 beginning with small doses and increasing gradually. By 

 means of the serum thus obtained, which is rich in anti- 

 toxin, other animals may readilj' be passively immunized, 

 and even small infected animals maj^ be cured, but horses 

 onty with difficulty. A female mouse immunized against 

 tetanus transmits a high degree of immunity to her offspring 

 (for two to three months), but the immunized male does 

 not. The milk of an animal immunized against tetanus 

 preserves or produces immunity in the sucking j'oung of 

 herself or others. 



(&) In man : Experimental infections of man with 

 tetanus are lacking. Curative results from injection of 

 tetanus antitoxin in cases of tetanus have often been 

 claimed. For the older literature, see Remesoff and 

 Fedoroff (C. B. xv, 115); for the latest condition of the 

 question, see, for example, Erdheim ("Wien. klin. Woch- 

 enschr., 1898, No. 19, 463), who, out of 22 new cases, re- 

 ports 11 failures. (C. B. xxiY, 634.) Also in horses there 

 are reported some favorable results and some failures. 



