Prevention of Lock-jaw in Stock.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 2089, 24 January 1896, Page 4

Prevention of Lock-jaw in Stock.

The "North British Agriculturalist," in replying to a correspondent who asks whether loek-jaw is contagious, and whether it is safe to give the flesh of animals that have died from lockjaw to dogs, says:— "Tetanus, popularly known as lockjaw, is an organismal disease, and the drum-stick.shaped organisms are very widely distributed. They are found in most soils, especially in garden mould, the dust from stables and hay-lofts, and in road sweepings, both in town and country. Mr Bossano, a French observer, quoted by Dr. Sims Woodhead, in his work On Bacteria and [ Their Products, obtained soil from 43 widely different localities in Europe and America, and in 27 of these obtained evidence of the bacillus, by inoculating white mice and guinea pigs, both of which are particularly susceptible to the disease. A solution of a soil from Bath is recorded to have caused fatal tetanus in 6G per cent, of the white mice into which it was injected. These destructive bacteria being present in so many soils, it is no wonder that injuries about the feet of horses sometimes lead to lock-jaw. Judging from the notorious prevalence of tetanus in some districts in Ireland, it may be presumed that the soil is freely impregnated with these bacilli; or that practitioners and attendants specially neglect antiseptic precautions. and thus implant the organisms from their dirty hands, instruments, or other appliances. Whether the tetaniscd animal or the bacilli-infected soil was the primary cause of tetanus, is a question as hopeless to determine as the priority of the egg or the fowl." Experiments have demonstrated that dust or solutions of SOIL CONTAINING TETANUS GERMS, or artificial cultivations of the bacillus placed upon the sound skin, are innocuous; but, when injected into the tissues, or brought into contact with an abraded skin or mucous surface, the characteristic tonic spasms are produced. The multiplying organisms have hitherto been believed to be mainly localised near the seat of inoculation, where, like those of rabies, they develop a toxine or enzime, whichl produces the distinctive spasms. The tetanus organism, like that of rabies developing its effects by inoculation, has hitherto been believed to be neither contagious nor infectious, thus differing from such disorders as foot and mouth complaint or swine fever. Recent investigations made, especially by M. Teyssandier, have, however, shown that the widely distributed, almost übiquitous, tetanus germs, like those of tuberculosis, are frequently ingested. They have been found by, many experimenters in the digestive canal, and in the freshly expielled farces of horses. They have been discovered on green food and on oat& A scratch about the mouth or throat, or a catarrhal state of the digestive membrane of animals eating such food would afford the organisms entrance into the body, and adequately explain the occurrence of those socalled ideopathic, or SPONTANEOUS ATTACKS, of tetanus. In the tissues and discharges of animals suffering from the disease, and in their carcases after death, the specific bacillus has been found. It is not easily destroyed; It resists for a considerable time even the temperature of boiling water. Rats and other animals inoculated in the tail and elsewhere with tetanus bacillus die from tetanus in twenty-four to seventy-two hours after inoculation. In cases of experimental tion, even before any notable symptoms set in, and for some days after death, the bacilli have been found in: the blood. During the life of the patient, and for a short while after death, the spasm-producing toxines which the bacilli elaborate are also found. Veterinarians attending cases of tetanus and making post-mortems of tetanus are recorded to have carried the disease to other patients, in some cases infecting cows which they have assisted in calving. Nay more. Veterinarians and grooms HANDLING TETANUS SUBJECTS, or making post-mortems of them, and having slight wounds on their hands, have been inoculated, and died of tetanus. Such investigations testify that effectually to prevent tetanus animals must be guarded from the assaults of the bacilli, whether these come direct from the infected animal or from the infected soil. Tetanus patients must accordingly be isolated, and their discharges disinfected. The hands, instruments, and anything that has been in contact with them must likewise be disinfected. CARCASES OF LOCKJAW SUBJECTS. should be disinfected and deeply buried, for there is certainly risk of the blood, offal, or flesh infecting sound animals. Dogs are apparently less predisposed to tetanus than horses or other herbivora, or than men. We have known lockjaw carcases eaten with impunity by fox-hounds and other dogs; but the above observations indicate that it is a risky proceeding, as a scratch on the lips, throat, or paw may admit the bacillus. The deadly; organism being present, as stated, in many soils, it is consequently unsafe to operate on animals thrown on the ground or manure heaps, or to bring into contact with any wound knives, ligatures, or sponges which have had the chance of becoming CONTAMINATED WITH INFECTED MATTERS. Not only in soils, but in dirt scraped from men's hands, and on that washed! eff foul instruments, the bacilli have been cultivated, identified, and, when injected into white mice, have developed the characteristic spasms. Suctt facts explain the occurrence alike of isolated and more extended attacks at tetanus. Considering the general disregard of antiseptic precautions, they, excite some wonderment that the disease is not more common; but they, also demonstrate the conditions to be adopted in guarding against its production both in man and beast.