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ANALYSIS OF CONTINENTAL JOURNALS. 
(surgical tetaniform cramps) ; on other occasions the muscles of 
the jaws are affected (trismus) ; finally, the disease may 
become general, and reach the muscles of the trunk (tetanus 
proper). 
Relative to the mode in which tetanus is produced, there 
exist two principal theories in connection with the nature of 
the causes themselves which have been enumerated ; these 
are the humoral theory and the nervous theory. 
In the first, a previous infection of the blood by a 
pyogenitic or other substance is admitted ; in the second, it 
is thought that the nervous irritation is primary, and is 
brought about without the medium of the blood. 
If the hypothesis of the humorists is to he accepted, we 
might suppose that in inoculating an animal with matter 
taken from the wound of a man suffering from tetanus, or by 
transfusing his blood into the healthy creature, the disease 
would be produced. It was to verify this primary point that 
we made the double experiment (the injection of blood and 
pus — 1, on rabbits ; 2, on dogs). The results were negative 
in both cases ; the temperature of the rectum did not vary to 
any sensible degree. 
This non-success certainly demonstrates that tetanus 
is not developed by inoculation from man to rabbits and 
dogs, but it does not upset the hypothesis of the humorists. 
To be convincing, the inoculation ought to be made on man 
(a condition difficult to realise), or, which comes to the same 
end, from one tetanic animal to another of the same species ; 
this is precisely what it has been possible for us to do. The 
animal was a very vigorous Percheron horse, affected with 
general spontaneous tetanus ; about 200 grammes of its blood 
were drawn from an opening in the jugular vein and received 
into a vessel properly heated ; it was immediately poured into 
an injection funnel placed in the jugular vein of another 
horse. The rectal temperature of the latter animal, taken 
before the experiment, was about 38° (Centigrade = 100° 
Fahr.) ; towards the second day it only increased from 2 to 
3-5ths of a degree, and this was only maintained during 
thirty-six hours. There was complete absence of tonic and 
clonic contractions. 
This last result was very important, and, though unique, 
yet we may say that in tetanus there is not an infecting 
process with primary alteration of the blood, as is yet believed 
in Germany by Roser, Billroth, and others. 
There remains the hypothesis of the neurists. For a long 
time it has been attempted to produce tetanus by pricking 
and bruising the peripheral nerves. Laurent Descot, in his 
