Pathogenesis of Tetanus

Abstract

In previous investigations (1) it was concluded that in the guinea pig and in the rabbit the phenomenon of local tetanus cannot be explained by the action of tetanal toxin on the muscle. This conclusion was reached with the aid of immunological methods. A dose of tetanal toxin causing local tetanus was injected into the muscle. Varying amounts of antitoxin were injected by the intravenous and the intracisternal routes respectively. It was found that to prevent local tetanus, 40–80 times more antitoxin was required by the intravenous than by the intracisternal route. The influence of the route of injection was considered as evidence that tetanal toxin produces local tetanus by an action on the cord with the implication that the toxin reaches the cord by nerve pathways as postulated by Meyer and Ransom (2) as well as by later investigators. Further evidence for the migration of the toxin in the nerve could be provided by a series of independent experiments (1, 3–5, 7–10).