Further observations and experiments regarding the true nature of tetanus / by Sydney Ringer and William Murrell.

  • Sydney Ringer
Date:
[1877?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Further observations and experiments regarding the true nature of tetanus / by Sydney Ringer and William Murrell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    became stronger, and was more easily induced; and in some cases, a few hours before the cessation of reflex action we ex- cited strong tetanus lasting half a minute to a minute, the animal becoming rigid from the powerful muscular contractions. Now we submit that in these cases the tetanus could not be due to increased excitability, unless it is maintained that the operation excited inflammation of the meninges of the cord, a supposition highly improbable, for various reasons. We main- tain that the tetanus is due to diminution of the resistance in the dying cord, enabling a powerful stimulus, as a blow on the trunk, to spread throughout the cord, and produce tetanus. For further details we must refer the reader to the paper we have mentioned. AVe now record some additional observations we have lately made. These we think conclusively prove that tetanus is not always due to increased excitability of the cord. These obser- vations, too, constrain us to admit a resistive power susceptible of modification, the other functions of the cord remaining but little or not at all affected. We pithed1 and destroyed the brain of three frogs, and then watched for the decline of reflex action. On the third day this was much weaker; in one frog so weak that, on pinching a toe, it only feebly withdrew its legs. We then injected under the skin of the back yfoT) grain of strychnia, which in about half an hour induced tetanus. This was very weak in the frog whose reflex action was nearly annulled, and the tetanus in this instance, though distinct, was feebler than the amount of muscular force developed in a normal vigorous reflex act; in other words, the reflex act, though tetanic, was weak. In the other two frogs, with reflex power much less weak before the injection, we induced strong tetanic convulsions on the slightest irritation, or even shaking the table, the paroxysms lasting a minute or longer. Next day, however, the tetanus was much weaker, and about equal to the tetanus induced by strychnia in the frog with very weak reflex power. The teta- nus grew weaker and weaker, but persisted till all reflex action became extinct; and for some time before this, the muscular 1 Perhaps it is hardly necessary to say that by the terra pithed we mean division of the cor’d opposite the oceipito-atlautal membrane.
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