LATENT TETANUS

Greymouth Evening Star, 31 August 1934, Page 12

LATENT TETANUS

REVEALED AT INQUEST. SYDNEY, August 17. Medical evidence was given during an inquiry conducted by the Parramatta District Coroner (Mr H. Richardson Clark) yesterday that tetanus could be contracted where there was no wound as the source of infection, and that the germs could remain dormant in the body for varying periods. The inquiry concerned the death of Mrs Jane Diana Rose, 56, at Parramatta District Hospital on August 8. William Henry Rose, retired inspector of police, said he and his wile cultivated roses at their home at Northmead. On July 19 he said, Mrs Rose complained of jiains in her back and consulted a doctor, who ordered her to be rubbed with methylated spirits. Mary Robinetta Rose, daughter of deceased, said her mother had used blood and bone dust and animal manure in the cultivation of the roses. Dr. Arthur Brian Erby said he saw Mrs Rose on July 25, when she conir plained of pains in her back. There were no cuts or scratches on her body, and he diagnosed the case as lumbago or fibrositis of the muscles. He saw deceased on August 1; the pains had moved to the right side of her chest. There was nothing, he said, to make him suspect tetanus. On August 7, however, there were definite symptoms of tetanus, and he ordered her removal to hospital. She died the following morning. Witness admitted that it was probable that Mrs Rose was suff:ering from tetanus when he examined her on August L Her symptoms then, he added, were not diagnosable.

nut Uidguuoauiu. Dr. Richard Andrew Phillip Waugh, Government Medical Officer at Parramatta, stated.a post-mortem had failed to reveal the cause of death. There was a small healed wound about an eighth of an inch in length on the Tight side of the back. From the history of the case he had arrived at the conclusion that Mrs Rose died from tetanus. His experience showed that it took from two to fourteen days from the time of infection for the germ, to develop. Two days, however, would bo sufficient where a severe cut was received on a road or other place where there was manure. Where the ■ cut was not severe, said witness, the

n germ is not so virulent, and would e take longer. In his opinion Mrs Rose r was a person in whom tetanus bacil- ’■ lus is of an ingested type, and was harboured somewhere in her system. e In her case the tetanus did not manifest itself from a wound as is most ’• frequently met with, but would appear when her vitality was lowered. P duo to other sickness. In reply to the ’ coroner, witness said he had had experience with one other similar in- , stance. Quite recently, he said, a\boy i was brought to him complaining of 3 pains in the back. 'There were no marks on his body, yet he was too . sick to be suffering from ordinary > muscular pains. He refused to go to [ hospital, but the following day he . returned suffering from distinct signs ■ of tetanus; He was sent to hospital, , where, after treatment, he made a complete recovery. It was a caseoin which the tetanus bacillus was lying dormant, he added, waiting to be lit through some other agency. The coroner returned a verdict of death from tetanus, and added that in his opinion Dr. Erby had done everything in his power to treat Mrs Rorp