TETANUS ANTITOXIN 



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that these chemical substances have a selective 

 action on certain nerve-cells in the brain and the 

 spinal cord. This is the bare outline of the 

 facts ; and no account can be given here of the 

 intricate problems of bacteriology and animal 

 chemistry that have been answered, or are still 

 waiting an answer. At least, it is evident that 

 the whole pathology of tetanus was found, proved, 

 and interpreted by the help of experiments on 

 animals ; and that these alone did away with 

 the old false doctrine that the disease was due to 

 rapid extension of inflammation up a nerve to the 

 brain. 



In 1894 came the use of an antitoxin in cases of 

 the disease, and in 1895 42 cases were reported, 

 with 27 recoveries. It cannot be said that any one 

 of the diverse preparations of tetanus antitoxin, up 

 to this present time, has triumphed over the disease. 

 Tetanus is of all diseases the hardest to reckon 

 with : the first sign of it is the last stage of it ; 

 there is no warning, nothing, it may be, but a 

 healed scratch, till the central nervous system 

 is affected with sudden and rapidly advancing 

 degeneration of certain cells. These and other 

 difficulties have stood in the way of an antitoxin 

 treatment ; and there is no less difficulty in esti- 

 mating the efficacy of that treatment. The 

 recovery, under antitoxin, of a " chronic " case 

 cannot always or altogether be attributed to the 

 treatment ; and in a very acute case, antitoxin, 

 like everything else, has but small chance of suc- 

 cess. Various reports on the antitoxin treatment, 



