394 BACTERIOLOGY. 
In mild cases, or when a dose too small to be fatal 
has been received, the tetanic spasm may remain con- 
fined to the muscles adjacent to the point of inocula- 
tion or infection. According to Gumprecht, the action 
of tetanus depends upon an increased reflex excita- 
bility, as in strychnine-poisoning; but it is different 
from strychnine in its mode of distribution, and prob- 
ably takes place chiefly through the nervous system, as 
in rabies. This view is supported by Brunner, Brusch- 
ettini, and others. Beck has described a peculiar degen- 
eration in the motor cells of the cord in animals killed 
by tetanus. This degeneration does not seem to attack 
the entire cells, but only a peripheral part, and seems 
to be confined chiefly to the body of the cell, usually 
leaving the nucleus intact. Only very late do the 
nucleus and the nucleolus take part in the changes. 
The changes consist in a swelling of the cell and a 
homogeneous or finely granular degeneration with a 
swelling, and, finally, coarse lumping together of the 
chromatin This is especially evident at the tiny emi- — 
nence from which the axis-cylinder arises and in the 
axis-cylinder itself. Beck considers this as proving 
that the poison travels along the axis-cylinder, and 
that, as the nucleus is the last. portion affected, the 
change is not a necrosis but only a modification of 
cell function. 
But there is also, in addition, undoubtedly a diffusion 
of the poison by means of the blood and lymph. The 
blood usually contains the poison, as has been proved 
experimentally on animals. Neisser showed that the 
blood of a tetanic patient was capable of inducing 
tetanus in animals when injected subcutaneously. 
Kitasato also found the serous exudates of the pleural 
