A BACTERIOLOGIC STUDY OF THE BLANK CARTRIDGE* 
DAVID H. DOILY 
It appears from statistics in The Journal of the American 
Medical Association, August 29, 1903, that of 392 cases of tetanus 
incident to accidents on the previous July 4, 363 followed wounds 
from the blank cartridge and toy pistol. In other words, 92 per 
cent, of the tetanus cases were apparently attributable to wounds 
from blank cartridges. 
Dr. A. I. Ludlow, assistant resident surgeon at the Lakeside 
Hospital, succeeded in isolating B. tetani from the blank cartridge 
wounds in one out of five fatal cases of tetanus, but cultivated the 
B. aerogenes capsulatus in four. In none of these cases was there 
emphysema nor emphysematous gangrene of the wounds, which 
were routinely treated by free incision and packing with iodoform 
gauze. In one of these which came to autopsy I failed to isolate 
B. tetani from the wound of the hand, but obtained B. aerogenes 
capsulatus from the local lesion and heart’s blood. There was no 
gaseous emphysema of any organ. 
These findings led me to investigate several makes of blank 
cartridges, and the results of these investigations form the basis of 
the present paper. The infectious agents concerned in these 
wounds (apart from the contents of the cartridge), may come 
from the skin and parts of clothing introduced. These latter 
sources of infection were not considered. 
SOURCE OF MATERIAL 
The cartridges used were manufactured by the Peters Cartridge 
Co., the Winchester Arms Co., and the Union Metallic Cartridge 
Co., and were bought in the open market at various times and 
places. 
♦Reprinted from The Journal of the American Medical Association, Feb. 11, 
j 1905. 
1908] 
23 
