The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1896-06-09
ANTIDOTE FOR L0CKJAW
BOARD or HEALTH SUPPLIES TIE
PUBIC.

Tetanus Anti-toxine Not IA Sure Cure, but
Sure Preventative if Taken in Time,
and the Dose for Man is as Much as
Would Save 1900 Guinea Pigs From
Death by the Disease.
New York, June S,--The New York
Evening Sun tonight says: The board
of health to-day made public announce
ment of the fact that it is prepared to
furnish an antidote for lockjaw on de-
mand, To public institutions in this
city it will be furnished free of charge.
Outsiders will have to pay for it.
Lockjaw is one of the most terrible
diseases, almost Invariably fatal. Its
microbe is of suburban proclivities with
| a preference, apparently for the sea-
shore, particularly on Long Island,
where the announcement will be receiy-
| ed with a feeling of relief fully justified
| by the facts 1t was only the other day
that little girl over there died of this
| dreadful disease, having. had her sore
arm inoculated with the poison by play
ing in the loose soil, They will note,
however, that the health boards reme-
dy is not put forth as an absolute cure,
That it has value such is undoubted,
but how much the doctors are not pre-
pared to say yet. What they do say is
that as preventive-that is, as a rem
edy to be applied in the interval be-
tween receiving the injury from which
| lockjaw is dreaded and the manifesto
| ton of its symptoms-it is Invaluable,
| possessing as great power as the poi
| son, left to itself, has virulence. 1t is
| a perfect and absolute minimizer.
| There the claim made for it stops at
present.
The fact is that when the poison has
| had time to work undisturbed to the
\ point of manifestation, it is doubtful if
| enough OF the antidote can be introduce
/, Cd into the system in time to overcome
it. The start the poison has received
| through days of incubation is likely to
| be too great. If, however it can be at
| tackled before it has gathered such
| Roadway, the tetanus anti-toxin will
| knock it out every time. The circular
issued to medical men by the health
| department sets forth that twenty cubic
centimetres of the serum which it has
on tap will protect three million
| grammes of guinea pigs in weight from
a fatal dose of the poison, which, put
| into unscientific language, means that
| fifteen drops of the anti-toxin injected
| into 1900 guinea pigs will enable them
| to laugh at the lockjaw as love laughs
| at the locksmith. From the guinea pig
| to man is a mere sum in arithmetic-Aso
many pigs per man, and there you have
| it. From the circular it would seem
| that one man equals about the full 1000
| pigs.
| DR.. Herman Biggs' bacteriologists
| have been at work on the pigs and the
| lockjaw this year past. From expert
| ments on the pigs they got to testing
their serum on horses, as they do in
| getting the diphtheria cure, and killed
| three of them before they got the thing
| adjusted. At last they have got it all
right, and they are pleased, with rea-
| son.
The circular to physicians describes
| the steps to be taken and urges prompt
action. Upon 1t success depends very
| largely. Tetanus or lockjaw may be
| feared from any punctured or lacerated
wound that retains dirt or rust or any
| foreign substance.
| Long Island, as stated, is especially
| favorable to the developments of the
| disease. It's symptoms are well known,
even though the disease is not COM
mon. They are the symptoms of in
| tense chemical poisoning, very much
| like those of strychnine poisoning. And
| 30 chemical poisoning, in fact, 1t is. The
| ti-toxin, set free In the blood by a
deep injection, Immediately starts out
on a tour of the whole body. searching
out and bouncing upon the tetanus mi
crobes wherever found. It then be-
comes simply a question of which is