BACTERIOLOGY IN A NUTSHELL. 



wounds. We frequently meet with cases of 

 tetanus caused by the patients having stepped 

 on a nail protruding from a board lying in 

 their pathway. The nail has penetrated the 

 shoe, entered the foot and carried with it 

 particles of soil containing the germs. The 

 bacillus tetani is said to possess the power to 

 do its deadly work in as short a period as 

 twenty-four hours, and but rarely to cause 

 mischief later than the tenth day after the 

 accident. 



In the past few years numbers of caseS of 

 tetanus have occurred after Fourth of July cele- 

 brations, arising in wounds caused by toy pis- 

 tols. Blank cartridges of these toys are said to 

 contain the germs, although authorities are of 

 the opinion that the germs are probably upon 

 the soiled hands of the child before the accident 

 and that they cause trouble in the wound after- 

 ward just as they do in other gunshot accidents 

 in which tetanus arises. A law was passed in 

 1903 in many of the large cities of the United 

 States prohibiting the sale of these pistols. 



The throat and jaws seem to be the parts 

 most affected when the symptoms first appear. 

 A feeling of stiffness and sometimes of pain in 

 these parts is complained of. Rapidly the 

 stiffening of the jaws increases. Severe 

 muscular spasms develop, at first in the muscles 

 of the jaw, but soon to spread over the entire 

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