30 
or a bacterial culture is used; so that we must conceive that the 
disease spreads in and around the wound, working upon the motor 
nerve endings (?). The general spasms are produced by the intro- 
duction of the poison into the blood. 
In 1891 Kitasato,® working under Koch’s directions, published his 
classical paper upon tetanus toxine. The toxine was readily obtained 
in any desired amount by simply filtering pure- cultures of the 
organism. 
Of the tliree species of animals used in these experiments — mice, 
guinea pigs, and rabbits — Kitasato found that guinea pigs are most 
susceptible to tetanus toxine; then follow mice, and finally rabbits. 
The s}^mptoms of tetanus in all three animals injected wdth the 
filtrate appear at the latest in three days. If the animals remain 
well for four days they will not sicken with tetanus. 
The tetanus toxine appears in the blood and there produces its toxic 
properties. The blood itself is sterile, and therefore it is a toxic and 
not a bacterial result. The bouillon must be neither acid nor strongly 
alkaline, but about neutral or have a weak alkalinity; and, secondly, 
it must always be freshly prepared. 
Meyer ^ injected dogs and cats vdth tetanus toxine into the spinal 
cord and found the condition known as tetanus dolor osus. This is 
never found in any other method of tetanus poisoning. By injecting 
the posterior roots of the spinal cord in the lumbar region Meyer 
obtained a pure tetanus dolorosus without muscular contractions. 
Bolton and Fisch^ have shown that the toxine makes its appearance 
in the blood of the horse several days before any symptoms of tetanus 
are to be observed, and that it gradually increases until about two 
days before symptoms become noticeable, and then it suddenly 
diminishes, and even disappears in some cases. The amount of 
toxine varies considerably in different cases. In one instance the 
serum from a diphtheria antitoxin horse about two days before 
symptoms of tetanus appeared was sufficient to kill a guinea pig in 
the dose of 0.1 c. c. The fact that tetanus toxine may appear in such 
large quantities in the blood without symptoms of tetanus is of very 
great practical importance in the production of both diphtheria and 
tetanus antitoxins. 
Von Lingelsheim recommends that in order to obtain strong tetanus 
toxines only those cultures which are strictly anaerobic should be 
a Kitasato, S. : Experimentelle Untersuchungen uber das Tetanusgift. Zeit. f. Hyg. , 
vol. 10, 1891, pp. 267-305. 
^ Meyer, Hans; Ueber motorischen und dolorosen Tetanus. Sitzber. d. Gesellsch. 
z.Bef. d. Naturw., Marburg, 1902, pp. 1-6. 
r Bolton, B. Meade, and Fisch, Carl; An estimate of the amount of toxine in the 
blood of horses infected with tetanus. Trans. Assn, of Am. Phys., vol. 17, 1902, pp. 
462^67. 
Von Lingelsheim, W.; Das Tetanusgift. Kolle & tVassermann’s Handbuch der 
Bakterien, Bd. 2, p. 589. 
