IS TETANUS CONTAGIOUS ? 
167 
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formed around the seat of inoculation. But Nicolaier failed in 
his attempts to isolate it in pure cultures, though his series con¬ 
tinued to be toxical. 
Lastly, Rosenbach, employing fluids obtained from a person 
affected with tetanus, consequent upon frost-bite of his feet, 
succeeded in isolating a bacillus which he could grow in a pure 
state and in indefinite series, while capable of retaining its power 
of producing tetanus in animals inoculated with it. 
It appears that in Germany it is generally accepted that 
Rosenbach’s bacillus is the microbe of tetanus. But unanimity 
does not exist among the investigators. Ferrari believes the 
microbe to be a staphylococcus, but the great experience of Ros¬ 
en bach, backed as he is by the researches of Brieger, tend to the 
belief that the German is correct. 
Brieger worked with broth inoculated with the bacilli of 
Rosenbach, and succceeded in isolating the four “ toxin,” or 
ptomaines as follows: 
1. Tetanin, easily decomposible by acids, but unattackable by 
alkalies. Injected in doses of a few milligrammes, it causes death, 
with tetaniform manifestations. 
2. letanoxin, producing tremblings, paralysis and cramps. 
3. An unnamed substance which produces tetanus and causes 
great increase in the lachrymal and salivary secretions. 
4:. Spasmotoxin, which kills animals with tonic and clonic 
convulsions. 
In decomposed cultures these substances are not found. 
Thus, according to Brieger, here are four vegetative ptomaines, 
sprouting from the bacillus of tetanus, each capable of producing 
that disease. 
Dr. Audry makes the following conclusion of the great mass 
of facts which he has collected : 
“ If these results are incontestable—and they can only be so 
- by people of altogether special competence—it is certain that a 
great advance has been made in microbio-chemistry. Neverthe* 
less, it is not permissible to accept as quite demonstrated at 
present, the absolute value of Rosenbach’s bacillus. The extreme 
difficulty with which it can be cultivated—a difficulty so great 
