Page 118 - My FlipBook
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quickly. In this case we will perhaps find the blood vessels
full of micro-organisms and the capillaries will be filled so as
to apparently occlude them and prevent the free circulation
of the blood, and in this case we might almost conclude that
the animal was dead from the interference with the circula-
tion by the bulk of micro-organisms. Yet we take another
case that has run its course more slowly and examine it
and we will perhaps find very few micro-organisms in the
blood vessels, almost none in the capillary systems. There is
nothing there to show that there has been any interference
with the circulation of the blood. There may be inflamma-
tion of the spleen ; there may be inflammation of some of the
other organs, but perhaps we will find nothing that seems
sufficient to kill or seems sufficient to interfere very seriously
with the functions of the body, yet the animal is dead of
anthrax, not from any physical performance of the micro-
organisms, but from their physiological processes and the in-
stillation of a poison that has afifected the nerve centers and
killed in that way. Interference with the physiological pro-
cesses by the poison and the aberration of the nerve func-
tions, purely and simply. Then, again, take the case of
tetanus. Here we have a micro-organism that is indigenous
in the soil in this country, but is found rather sparsely in
this section, so that we occasionally have cases here in Illi-
nois. In some other regions it is more plentiful in the earth,
usually growing as a saprophite, but on occasion will grow as
a parasite. It produces its results slowly but very certainly
a micro-organism very much to be dreaded. A typical case
came under my observation a number of years ago. A boy
had cut his toe with an ax ; the wound was stitched up by
his physician ; a few days after the physician called to see how
the wound was progressing (not a serious wound) and found
the boy up and about, feeling pretty comfortable, but when
he unwrapped it he found the toe sticking up ; it didn't go to
the floor when the boy put his weight on his foot. Examin-
ing the foot carefully, he found the muscles more or less
tense. This aroused his suspicion. He was a young man
and hadn't seen a case of tetanus. He asked me to go to see
the boy, which I did at once. I was satisfied from the symp-
toms that it was tetanus and that the boy was in a very dan-
gerous condition, although he felt pretty well ; could walk
io6
quickly. In this case we will perhaps find the blood vessels
full of micro-organisms and the capillaries will be filled so as
to apparently occlude them and prevent the free circulation
of the blood, and in this case we might almost conclude that
the animal was dead from the interference with the circula-
tion by the bulk of micro-organisms. Yet we take another
case that has run its course more slowly and examine it
and we will perhaps find very few micro-organisms in the
blood vessels, almost none in the capillary systems. There is
nothing there to show that there has been any interference
with the circulation of the blood. There may be inflamma-
tion of the spleen ; there may be inflammation of some of the
other organs, but perhaps we will find nothing that seems
sufficient to kill or seems sufficient to interfere very seriously
with the functions of the body, yet the animal is dead of
anthrax, not from any physical performance of the micro-
organisms, but from their physiological processes and the in-
stillation of a poison that has afifected the nerve centers and
killed in that way. Interference with the physiological pro-
cesses by the poison and the aberration of the nerve func-
tions, purely and simply. Then, again, take the case of
tetanus. Here we have a micro-organism that is indigenous
in the soil in this country, but is found rather sparsely in
this section, so that we occasionally have cases here in Illi-
nois. In some other regions it is more plentiful in the earth,
usually growing as a saprophite, but on occasion will grow as
a parasite. It produces its results slowly but very certainly
a micro-organism very much to be dreaded. A typical case
came under my observation a number of years ago. A boy
had cut his toe with an ax ; the wound was stitched up by
his physician ; a few days after the physician called to see how
the wound was progressing (not a serious wound) and found
the boy up and about, feeling pretty comfortable, but when
he unwrapped it he found the toe sticking up ; it didn't go to
the floor when the boy put his weight on his foot. Examin-
ing the foot carefully, he found the muscles more or less
tense. This aroused his suspicion. He was a young man
and hadn't seen a case of tetanus. He asked me to go to see
the boy, which I did at once. I was satisfied from the symp-
toms that it was tetanus and that the boy was in a very dan-
gerous condition, although he felt pretty well ; could walk
io6
