=Tetanus.= This dread complication of wounds occasionally occurs after ovariotomy, and during the ‘reign of the clamp’ it was especially frequent in Germany (Olshausen). Cases have been reported in England, and tetanus has been noticed to affect patients who have been ovariotomized in rooms recently plastered. Since Kitasato demonstrated the bacillary origin of tetanus poison, and showed that the bacillus can be transported by dust, knowing its liability to attack suppurating wounds, we can understand that when the pedicle of an ovarian cyst was secured by a clamp and allowed to slowly slough away, more or less exposed to air and dust, it offered a nidus for the tetanus bacillus. Tetanus, however, has not quite disappeared as a sequel to operations on the pelvic organs, for in 1902 a case was reported by Dorsett in which a patient died of this disease after hysteropexy, and the tetanus bacillus was detected in some wallaby tendon employed to suspend the uterus. Tetanus has also been traced to infected catgut employed in cholecystotomy (1905). Ed. Martin reported the occurrence of tetanus after vaginal fixation of the uterus and colporrhaphia anterior. Cumol-catgut was employed. Menzer has recorded a similar case which occurred in Dührssen’s Klinik (1901). The ligatures were of catgut. Mallet refers to two post-operative deaths from tetanus. One patient had undergone an operation for bilateral pyosalpinx and the other had a fibroid of the uterus complicated with an ovarian cyst. There was an interval of eighteen months between the two fatal cases. Catgut was employed as the ligature material. In practice it is important to remember that tetanus arises from infection: hence all instruments which have been in contact with this disease must be sterilized, and this should be effected by submitting them to prolonged boiling. Tetanus occurs as a rare sequel to miscarriage and normal labour. Kraus and von Rosthorn have reported some carefully investigated cases of this kind. REFERENCES DORSETT, W. B. Two fatal cases of Tetanus following Abdominal Section due to Infected Ligatures, &c. _Am. Journ. of Obstet._, 1902, xlvi. 620. MALLET, G. H. Some Unusual Causes of Death following Abdominal Operations. Ibid., 1905, li. 515. MARTIN, ED. Postoperativer Tetanus (with references). _Zent. f. Gyn._, 1906, xxx. 395. MEINERT. Drei gynäkologische Fälle von Wundstarrkrampf. _Arch. für Gyn._, 1893, xliv. 381. MENZER. Tetanus Infection after Vaginal Fixation of the Uterus. _Zeitsch. f. Geb. u. Gyn._, 1901, xliv. 517. OLSHAUSEN, R. Tetanus nach Ovariotomie Billroth-Lücke’s. _Handb. der Frauenkrankheiten_, 1877-9, ii. 367. TAYLOR, H. Tetanus after Hysterectomy. _Am. Journ. of Obstet._, 1908, lvii. 574.