A SCOURGE OF WAR

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2719, 14 March 1916, Page 7

A SCOURGE OF WAR

GRAPPLING WITH TETANUS PREPARATION OF SERUM Lockjaw, or tetanus, following on wounds, lias been one of tho lethal scourges of' tho. war, which has enlarged tho production, of means to combat it to a scale hitherto unknown. The tetanus bacillus, the spores of tetanus, and of the other strango diseases, such ae gas gangrene, are not new to this war. They are found comiricnly in tho alimentary tracts of animals and ill manure and in highlyniamncd ground. They do not thrive vory well in the last-named surroundings,, because they are all oxygen is destructive to them. That is 0110 of, the reasons why gardeners, in spits of their dealings with manured ground, seldom are infccted with the lockjaw organises. The bacilli wliicli may attack them are commonly too near tho surfaco of their skins. The tetanus bacilli demand to burrow beneath the surface, where tliey may be protected from oxygen. These conditions are fulfilled in wounds which penetrate deeply and take with tho bullet or shell fragment dirt or clothing as well as tetanus and other anaerobio bacilli. Moreover, such wounds cannot always ba dressed 'at once. If immediate dressing were possible, the bacilli could scarcely flourish, because they deniand not only protection from oxygen, but food in the form of septic matter, which ;s their nutriment. The same observations apply to the gas gangrene bacilli. But such 'ideal conditions for the wounded: men are not. illways attainable; the bacilli gain a footing.'; The only known way to deal with them is to administer an antidote to the poison they are manufacturing. This .1 antidote is anti-tetanic serum, which is obtained from the blood of suitable horses, 'and the preparation of which is now being carried on at various farm laboratories. From the Blood of Horses, One of these laboratories (states the "Morning Post") stands pleasantly on a ridge in the Home Counties, the old house where tho . bacteriologists and chemists live facing a prospect of woods and valley, which in the sunlight of an October day is ouo of shining peace. No less , pacific; is tho sunny stableyard, with its sixty or seventy horses, their heads pushed inquiringly out of their stalls; and ready to give, liter ally, their blood to their country. For they are all furnishing, if not antitetanus serum, then at anyrato antidysentery v serum or anti-diphtheria serum. It is not every horse enlisted which when tested can bo_ used. Every one has to undergo a period'of examination and probation in order to show that its blood may prove useful as an antidote, to the poison Which is in the wounded soldiers' veins and nerve system. The horses here are a very democratic corps. They are of all kinds, beuvy "horses, light horses, ponies, Arabs, old and yc'ung. Juno, a mare, has been here years, and is saving soldiers' lives still. It is not possible to say what kind of horse will prove the best serum producer. If it were, the production of serum would bo very much simplified. Nor is it certain that a horse will continue to give serum of the right properties and quality. If the conditions weio known under which serum up to a given standard are, produoed by any liorso, then, again, serum production would be a very much easier task. But- the work is full of baffling surprises at every stage, and those who know most about it are the - most dubious about laying down rules or principles. On this farm it has been' found that the best results are usually obtained from rather light horses which have a strain of breeding 111 them.

All the horses seem very good tempered 'and healthy. They differ from otiTer stabled horses only In appearing profoundly bored. That is not to bo wondered at, for their life is one of convalescent monotony; and it is only ivlien on vacation that they leave their stiibles.. There-are two periods in the florae's- exertions. Tho first is the preparatory period .when the horse is being tested for suitability and physiologically trained for its vocation. In this stage the horse's blood is heing brought up to tne point of supplying nn antidote to disease poisons. Foi the purposes of illustration we will suppose that the disease poison to be counteracted is that of tetanus. The way Tn wJii'cb any animal, _ horse, or man, acquires immunity against a disease is by manufacturing in its blood an antidote to tho pbison of that' disease, ilorse or man manufactures such an upiidotc, in excess, on any occasion when having been attacked by the disease it recovers. ' The method of inducing the-, horse to manufacture in its blood-an antidote to tetanus is to infect it withi the disease, but, so to infect it that the disease will bo mild and easily recovered from. - Long experience has shown, that a convenient way is to bogin by infccting tho horse with small doses of the poison' and of the antidote mixed. It thus becomes more and more resistcnt to the poison. The blood manufactures for itself the antidote in larger and larger; quantities. i The Anti-Tetanus Units. If and when the horse proves itsolf a-.i antidoto-producer it enters .on ft new phase. It is now a valuable animal; but it has to work hard in a sedentary way. It leads the life of a convalescent, vigorous but - cloistered. At stated intervals blood is drawn from it, to the amount of seven or eight litres; and when-this has gone on for sonio time it has a three months' rest before it begins again. That has been found, in England at any rate, to bo the best way; and to give tho. most uniform results. There is no certainty that any given "taking" of serum will be up to the standard of requirement, or that the horse will not begin to fail as a producer. The method of pioparing the serum from the blood is simple in outline, complex in its details. The chief objects are to prepare it of a good strength, and to keep it pure. • It may he necessary to inject a very large number of units into a patient, several thousand, and that implies a large quantity of liquid. This liquid must not contain too great a proportion of other substances, proteins, which the patient does not want. Methods hava therefore been elaborated for concentrating tho antidote. Concentrated, sterilised, many times tested and standardised, it is finally sealed into glass bottles, with such care Mid pre. cautions as are familiar only to those who know laboratories; and is sent to the front and to tho hospitals to save lives by its prophylactic and curativo properties. Its 1 use has been amply demonstrated in the war. But_ tho prime necessity in employing it is, nn Dr. A. MacConko.y pointed out in his paper in the "Lancet" n year ago, to use it early enough.