. A treatise on the nervous diseases of children, for physicians and students. nct to representthe actual pathological con-ditions of tetanus ; they aresecondary effects, and it isprobable that in tetanus, asin other of the diseaseshitherto considered, definitethough the symptoms maybe, the changes are of atransitory character, every trace of which disappears afterdeath. It would be more important, therefore, to refer tothe morbid pathology. The pathology of tetanus can be readily understood in thelight of modern researches if we regard the spasms of tet-anus as the result of increased irritab
. A treatise on the nervous diseases of children, for physicians and students. nct to representthe actual pathological con-ditions of tetanus ; they aresecondary effects, and it isprobable that in tetanus, asin other of the diseaseshitherto considered, definitethough the symptoms maybe, the changes are of atransitory character, every trace of which disappears afterdeath. It would be more important, therefore, to refer tothe morbid pathology. The pathology of tetanus can be readily understood in thelight of modern researches if we regard the spasms of tet-anus as the result of increased irritability of the convul-sive centres in the brain. This increased irritability is di-rectly due to the influence of germs or germ productsintroduced into the system from some external tetanus bacillus (Nicolaier) is a rod-shaped microbewhose spores are attached to one end of the bacillus, whichwith its spores resembles in appearance an ordinary microbe is found in the soil as well as in the dust ofdwellings. These bacilli are capable of resisting great heat,. Fig. 49.—Tetanus Bacilli and Spores.(x about 1,000.) (Kitasato.) TETANUS. 151 retaining their activity even after exposure to 1750 F. foran hour (Kitasato, Zeitschrift fur Hyg., vol. vii.). Theirspores are capable of resisting the same heat for six hours,but the spores are not formed if the temperature exceeds1080 F. The bacteriologic phase of this subject has beenstudied most carefully in recent years by Ehrlicb, Wasser-man and Milchner, to whose writings the reader is re-ferred. As products of these bacilli we have several poisons(tetanin, tetano-toxin, and also tox-albumins, Brieger), whichhave been derived from pure cultures and which are ca-pable of exciting the disease. It is probable that the tetanusbacillus itself does not cause the disease, but that the poi-sonous substances formed in the blood by the presence ofthis bacillus are the direct cause of tetanus. It is an inter-esting fact that granul
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