SEROTHERAPY OF TETANUS. 
455 
of the note in the DeiU. Med. Wochenschrift has gone too far ; 
to be convinced of it, the reading of the observation published 
by Prof. Frohner, of Berlin (Mo/iatsh. f Thierh^ 1897, p. 298), 
will be sufficient. It can be stated in a few words : “A horse 
was taken the 29th of January with light trismus : three hours 
after the appearance of the first symptoms, he received in the 
jugular 5 grammes of dry antitoxin from Hochst, dissolved in 
45 grammes of boiled water. The 30th, the trismus had in¬ 
creased ; another injection of 5 grammes of antitoxin. The 
31st, severe condition of the animal, tetanus is generalized ; 
third injection of 5 grammes of antitoxin ; death during the 
night.” 
To this observation no one can object to the delay in the 
interference, nor the insufficiency of the dose of antitoxin in¬ 
jected ; the animal had received three times the “ curative 
dose ” of dry seruin and the first injection had been made three 
hours after the appearance of the first symptoms ; more favor¬ 
able circumstances could scarcely be expected in ordinary prac¬ 
tice ; yet the patient died. 
Perhaps Frohner’s case was one exceptionally severe ? 
The truth is that clinical observation is not sufficient tO' 
solve the problem ; a considerable number of facts, observed in 
identical conditions, would be necessary. And even then it 
would be necessary to take into consideration : the district 
where tetanus has occurred ; the nature of the traumatism that 
caused it ; the duration of the incubation, etc.,—conditions that 
have a great influence upon the severity, march and termina¬ 
tion of the disease. 
In reality, it is only by experimentation that the real value 
of a curative treatment of tetanus can be established. 
That is what I have endeavored to make in a series of very 
simple experiments, which have essentially consisted in inject¬ 
ing several horses with a dose of tetanic toxin, sufficiently 
powerful to kill fatally all inoculated ; then, some of these 
horses being kept as witnesses, the others were treated accord¬ 
ing to the indications of the Dent. Med. Woche^tschrift. 
