42  Recent  Literature  Relating  to  Pharmacy.    {A  January fiS.m^ 
the  specific  microorganism  of  tetanus  in  the  serum  favorable  for 
growth  when  injected  into  the  system,  or  that  the  serum  employed 
contained  the  toxin  or  poison  produced  by  the  specific  bacillus  in  the 
system  of  the  horse  circulating  in  the  blood  from  which  the  anti- 
toxic serum  was  obtained. 
The  latter  supposition  is  thought  by  Dr.  Abbott  to  be  the 
more  likely  explanation :  First,  because  the  conditions  under  which 
the  antitoxic  serum  is  prepared  are  not  favorable  to  the  growth  of 
the  Bacillus  tetani,  even  if  it  were  introduced  into  the  serum  from 
some  outside  source  during  its  preparation.  This  specific  bacillus 
will  not  grow  in  the  presence  of  oxygen,  and  as  the  blood  when 
drawn  from  the  horse,  as  well  as  the  serum  during  its  after- 
treatment  contains  oxygen,  it  is  evident  that  no  bacilli  of  tetanus 
were  growing  in  the  serum,  and  secondly,  because  antiseptics  such 
as  phenol,  formaldehyde  and  tricresol  are  used  in  the  preservation 
of  serums.  Thirdly,  had  the  serum  contained  the  bacilli  or  spores 
of  tetanus  in  large  numbers,  tetanus  would  almost  certainly  have 
developed  in  some  one  or  another  of  the  susceptible  animals  used 
in  standardizing  the  serum,  which  did  not  occur.  He  goes  on  to 
say  that  this  condition  may  be  due  to  the  very  small  amount  of 
antitoxin  mixed  with  the  toxin  which  is  administered  to  the  guinea 
pig,  and  a  possible  remedy  in  the  future  being  to  inject  the  test- 
animal  with  an  amount  of  antitoxin  equal  to  that  administered  to  a 
human  adult. 
As  for  the  future  development  of  tetanus  in  the  horse,  from  which 
the  serum  is  obtained,  little  can  be  said,  for  we  know  but  little  about 
the  real  time  required  for  the  bacilli  to  develop  in  the  system  to 
such  an  extent  as  to  produce  diagnostic  symptoms. 
In  this  same  journal,  of  November  30th,  we  find  the  report  of  the 
Commission  appointed  to  investigate  these  cases  of  tetanus,  during 
which  investigations  it  was  found  that  the  serum  of  August  24th 
was  obtained  from  two  different  animals  or  from  the  same  animal  at 
two  different  times ;  the  first  being  obtained  before  the  attack  or 
period  of  incubation,  and  the  other  or  toxic  serum  after  or  during 
the  period  of  incubation.  The  experiments  which  were  carried  out 
on  susceptible  animals  showed  this  to  be  the  case,  as  some  of  the 
animals  injected  with  serum  marked  August  24th  showed  toxic 
symptoms,  whereas  others  injected  with  other  samples  also  marked- 
August  24th  did  not  show  any  toxic  symptoms  whatever,  seventy 
