Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 May 1895 — CURE FOR LOCKJAW. [ARTICLE]

CURE FOR LOCKJAW.

Dr. Paul Gibiar Believes He Has a Remedy. Science may have mastered the secret of coping with the terrible disease known as lockjaw, death from which is often said to be more terrible than from the worst form of hydrophobia. Before the Medico Legal Society of New York a paper was read by Dr Paul Gibier, director of the New York Pasteur Institute, in which he presented the interesting facts of a discovery in which ho claimed that antl-toxine of tetanus is a positive preventive, if not an absolute remedy for lockjaw. He entered at length into the details of the preparation of the antl-toxine, and cited numerous cases where the introduction of the fluid into the system’both prevented lockjaw and effected cures. Through a large microscope, which Dr. Gibier had previously set up on the platform, his hearers were enabled to peep at magnified “baccili” of tetanus, with which he had charged the glass. ‘ These are the germs which produce the terrible tetanus,” said Dr. Gibier. ‘The baccili of tetanus cover all sections of the earth Inhabited by man orbeast. The germs are indigenous, 'I might say, to the soil where man or animal live. Particularly in the stable myriads and myriads of these germs of disease have their being . The horse, more than any other animal, is susceptible to tetanus, and this may be accounted for from the fact that the filth of the stable is more conducive to the development of the tetanus baccili than any other condition. ‘‘The disease is not contracted by inhalation. It is the result of the germs being introduced into a wound or opening of the skin. Once in the wound the germs of tetanus thrive wonderfully, and in a few days produce that awful condition which results in the stiffening of the" muscles of the jaw, terrible convulsions and rigidity of frame and ends in deatlf.” Dr. Gibier quoted statistics showing that sixty-five per cent of the cases of tetanus resulted fatally, these figures including deaths on the battle field and in railroad accidents. The development of tetanus among victims of railroad disasters, he said, was due to the introduction of the germ-charged rail into the wounds.