4 
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after operations such as for subphrenic abscess and for disease of the | 
urinary tract. In one of these last four cases the organism was obtained [ 
from the seat of injection. i 
Drs. Hochhalt and Herezel (3) report a case of tetanus on the seventh 
day after an injection of 2 per cent gelatin following splenectomy. | 
Dr. Laszlo Deatsch (3) studied bacteriologically the gelatin used i n I 
the last-named case, and found that after being boiled for five minutes I 
and then grown anaerobically it contained an anaerobic, spore-bearing 
bacillus. He advises that gelatin, to be used as a hemostatic, be inocu- 
lated with bacillus subtilis before sterilization, and, as this organism 
is more resistant to heat than that of tetanus, if there is no growth of 
subtilis the gelatin can be used without fear of tetanus, 
Drs. Levi and Brun (4), of Strasbourg, examined six samples of 
gelatin and in four found tetanus bacilli. They found that the spores 
of the tetanus bacilli which they isolated were able to resist streaming j 
steam for a longer period than eight minutes. ‘ 
Six different makes of gelatin were purchased in the open market j 
and, with the stock laboratory gelatin, an investigation was begun with | 
regard to the presence of tetanus in the same. Ten grams of each | 
sample of gelatin were placed in 100 c. c. of glucose bouillon and heated | 
at 50° 0. until dissolved, then rendered slightly alkaline to litmus and 
heated to 80° C. for ten minutes to endeavor to kill all nonspore-bearing 
organisms ; the fiasks at the end of ten minutes were quickly placed in a 
Novy jar and boiled in vacuo to expel all of the air ; the jars were then 
placed in the incubator and kept at 37° C. for one week. On the 
seventh day the fiasks were removed from the jars. Three of the fiasks 
remained sterile ; of the other four, three showed an end- spore bearing 
rod, the spores of two of them being oval, and the third round with a | 
very fine rod ; this last stained by Gram. | 
The same day .5 c. c. of each culture was injected subcutaneously 
into white rats, but beyond making them very sensitive to sudden 
noises for one or two days, no results were noted. Two days later .5 c. c. 
of the culture containing the round, end spore rod was put into a white 
mouse. The mouse was found dead the next morning. Bouillon tubes 
were inoculated from the site of inoculation and with the heart’s blood, 
but both remained sterile. Two drops of this culture, which we will 
call No. 1, were put into a tube of bouillon, heated to 80° C. for five 
minutes, and from this glucose agar plates were made and incubated 
for seven days at 37° C. in a Novy jar. At the end of a week two of the 
plates showed deep, oval colonies ; stained smears showed these to be a 
fine rod with a round end-spore. 
A fiask and three tubes of freshly made bouillon were inocnlated from 
the plates ; the flask was heated to 80° C. for ten minutes ; the tubes 
were not heated after inoculation. Flask and tubes were grown in a 
Novy jar as before. One drop of the bouillon growth from one of the 
tubes wa^ injected into the right side of a mouse; mouse died next 
