Lockjaw

or Tetanus, an infectious disease prevalent among people and the lower animals. Stepping on a rusty nail, or an ugly laceration of the hand with an instrument, was formerly considered a cause of lockjaw. It has been discovered of late, however, that the disease is due to the presence of a minute plant or bacillus which multiplies with great rapidity and poisons the system. It breeds in the ground where live stock, particularly horses, stand. The rusty nail, to which reference has been made, simply introduces the germs into the foot. The disease is a most distressing one. Both people and animals die in paroxysms of pain, with the lower jaw tightly set. The bacilli multiply in the region of the wound and produce a poison which is absorbed by the blood. The skillful physician cauterizes the wound with a hot iron or nitrate of silver, that is to say, burns it out to destroy the colony, and trusts to quiet and careful nursing to bring the patient through. It is said that the germs cannot grow in air, and that opening the wound with a knife and laying it open to the air kills them. A weak solution of bichloride of mercury is a valuable germ killer. The wound may be bathed in this solution. See Bacteria; Disease