Tetanus
Tetanus names 3 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Tetanus stiffness or spasm of the neck
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
stiffness or spasm of the neck; a disease common to mankind and animals. It is characterized by the contraction of a greater or less number of muscles by paroxysmal spasms, which aggravate the contractions and by troubles more or less accentuated in the calorification of the circulation and respiration. It is most commonly located in the jaw and begins with painful stiffness at the maxillary muscles and the muscles at the nape of the neck or by difficulty in swallowing. The progress of tetanus is either acute or chronic. The acute form develops in from one to four days; the chronic form may last a fortnight. In acute tetanus the average number of deaths ranges from 65 to 80 per cent. The disease is caused by a bacillus which secretes a very active poison, and that earth from the street or garden and especially from stables or manured land is swarming with these bacilli. It is the U contact of the earth with any kind of wound, especially wounds in the hands or feet, which is the most important factor in the development of tetanus. No certain remedy for tetanus has as yet been discovered though antitetanic serum has been successfully used as a preventive. A. very simple preventive of lockjaw is here given. As soon as possible after the wound is received hold the part affected for 20 minutes in the smoke of woolen or flannel. This is easily procured by placing butts or pieces of woolen or flannel cloth on a shovelful of hot coals.
Tetanus stiffness or spasm of the neck
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
Important: Safety Warning
This page gives first-aid or emergency advice that predates modern medicine and can make an emergency worse. Do not follow it. In any medical emergency, call emergency services and follow current first-aid guidance.
This information has been left in for historical purposes but should not be acted upon.
stiffness or spasm of the neck; a disease common to mankind and animals. It is characterized by the contraction of a greater or less number of muscles by paroxysmal spasms, which aggravate the contractions and by troubles more or less accentuated in the calorification of the circulation and respiration. It is most commonly located in the jaw and begins with painful stiffness at the maxillary muscles and the muscles at the nape of the neck or by difficulty in swallowing. The progress of tetanus is either acute or chronic. The acute form develops in from one to four days; the chronic form may last a fortnight. in acute tetanus the average number of deaths ranges from 65 to 80 per cent. The disease is caused by a bacillus which secretes a very active poison, and that earth from the street or garden and especially from stables or manured land is swarming with these bacilli. It is the U rest; tarsi covered with feathers, in Bonasa partially, in Lagopus, to the claws. at 203°.
Tetanus . See Lockjaw
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
. See Lockjaw
What Has Changed in the Last Century
When Collier's wrote this in 1921 it could report only that "no certain remedy for tetanus has as yet been discovered," that antitetanic serum worked as a preventive, and that acute cases killed 65 to 80 per cent. Three years later Gaston Ramon and P. Descombey produced tetanus toxoid, a formalin-treated toxin that provokes lasting immunity; combined with diphtheria and pertussis vaccine from the 1940s, it turned tetanus into a rare disease in vaccinated countries, with the United States now reporting a few dozen cases a year. WHO-led campaigns against maternal and neonatal tetanus have cut deaths in newborns by well over 90 per cent since the late 1980s, though the disease persists where birth is unattended and vaccination patchy. The advice to hold a wound for twenty minutes in the smoke of burning flannel has no basis whatever; wound cleaning, a toxoid booster and immunoglobulin are the modern response.
Written for this edition, 2026.