The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-06-23
DEADLIEST OF GERMS.
NEW YORIx'S HEALTH BOARDS
CAMPAIGN AGAINST TETAyUs.

Poison ITO Times More Deadly Than
Iy Than Prussic Acid-2,5OO Times
More Deadly Than Strychnine-5,-
600 Times More Deadly Than Afro
pine-The Microbc of Dirt Which
Generates Disease and Does Not
show Itself Until the Death strug-
gle-Gcrms Which Lave for Centu-
ries in the Soil, i'm the Mortar of
Old Buildings, in the Air, An Hay
Dust, In CObwebs, In the City
Streets.
New York. June 21.-The New York
Health Board is engaged in a seige OF
what it states officially to be the most
deadly disease known to man, /. Clock
jaw. The public attitude towards this
disease is that 1t is dreaded boogaboo,
the realization OF which is seldom man
ifested in real Mfe. But it is not generally
known that one department of the health
board directs its energy to nothing else
than the prevention of the malady in an
imals; that Bellevue Hospital always has
at least one human patient doomed to
death because of the disease; that no an
imal ever yet got well of 1t; that no hui
man being ever yet got well of its acute
form; that there is no cure for it once its
symptoms have strongly manifested
themselves; that the microbe of tetanus
turks literally everywhere and that any
person may contract the disease and have
Of uoa WITH kpnuing the
popularity of this deadliest of germs is
that having once entered the human body,
on the point of a rusty nail or otherwise,
it will incubate and quietly poison the
whole blood and nervous system before
1t is even felt by its unfortunate host
and that the symptoms which then sud
denly manifest themselves are really not
the beginning of the disease, but the be-
ginning OF the death struggle of the suf-
ferer.
The lockjaw microbe is the microbe of
dirt, and hence with the disappearance of
snow from the ground, and throughout
the spring of the year, every person. is
liable to take It into the system with an
accidental cut or bruise. 1t is disease
Of the spring and summer. the mortality
of which is greatest about the Fourth of
July, hence the present activity of the
Health Board. In view of the facts, there
fore. one OF the leading physicians of the
department was asked to describe the
mtNady, to tell how 1t is contracted,
where II is found most prevalent, and
what Is being done to Offset its terrible
effects. In reply he wrote the following
graphic not to say appalling account:
"Of all the dangers that Turk unseen in
the pathways of mankind, tetanus or
lock-jaw is the most to be dreaded. For
late Investigations show that no person is
immune from IT.: that the prince or the
pauper; the stay-at-home or the CAD
about, may become suddenly inocculated
with equal facility; that 1t turks in the
dust of cities, in the soil of the farm, in
the mortar of ancestral homes, in hay
dust, in barracks and hospitals, in spider
webs, in the water of the Dead Sea; that
age does not kill it. cold does not destroy
1t, and even from heat that will kill
most germs. 1t energies phoenix-like to
continue its work of destruction Unlike
diphtheria and other forms of toxic pois-
oning the symptoms of which become ap-
parent Immediately the diseases is acquir-
ed, the bacillus of lockjaw propagates I'M
detected in the body until the original
wound through which 1t entered has en-
tirely healed, and perhaps has been for
gotten, after which 1t suddenly reveals its
presence and the horrible result of its
LO4lC propensity Win d llldl
will be appreciated when 1t is pointed out
that compared with the dried venom of
the cobra, (the deadliest of snakes). the
tetanus bacillus is over 10 times more
poisonous; that it is 1000 times more pois-
onous than prussic acid. $500 times more
poisonous than strvchnine and h0O0 times
more poisonous than atropine ~
THE geogra phical distribution of te-
tanus is limited only to those parts of
the earth Inhabited by man. In other
words 1t is found everywhere. But there
are some spots where it turks with par
ticular persistence. New York city seems
to be the center of a lockjaw district. The
bacilli have been found in the street
dirt of Manhattan and also in
the dust from Long Island and
New Jersey. DR.. Williams OF the New
York Health Department twice obtained
them from the air of the city. Yet this
is not startling in view Of its prevalence
in other parts of the world. The Hudson