History, Modern -- 19th century; Nineteenth century
The bacillus of lockjaw is found in great abundance around stables, and
this explains the fact that hostlers, drivers, cavalrymen, all of whom
had to do with horses, are especially liable to attacks of lockjaw.
Moreover, certain bacteria thrive best when exposed to the open air.
Other bacteria, and among them the bacilli of lockjaw, thrive best when
the air is excluded, and this explains the danger of treading on a
rusty nail, which is popularly and rightly known as peculiarly liable
to produce lockjaw. The reason is not because it is a nail, nor because
it is old, nor because it is rusty, but because from the earth in which
it lies it is most apt to be the means of introducing into a punctured
wound the bacilli of lockjaw. Such a wound bleeds but very little, the
blood soon crusts and excludes the air, and if any of the bacilli of
lockjaw have been carried into the body, they find in such a closed
wound, from which the air is excluded, the most favorable conditions
for growth and infection of the whole body. Knowing these facts from
experiment, the treatment is clear. Lay open such a wound and disinfect
it.
These two forms, the “cocci,” or berry-like bacteria, and the
“bacilli,” or rod-like bacteria, comprise the great majority of
dangerous bacteria.
It must be remembered that there is an enormous number of bacteria
which are not dangerous; some of them are entirely harmless even
if introduced into the human body. Others are the bacteria of
decomposition, or putrefaction, which are known as “saprophytic”
bacteria. All of the harmless ones are known as “non-pathogenic,” that
is, non-producers of disease. Those which produce disease are known
as “pathogenic,” and those which produce suppuration as “pyogenic” or
pus-producing bacteria.
All of these bacteria are plants, and not, as is very frequently
supposed, animals of a low form. The danger from their introduction
into the body can be best appreciated, perhaps, by the statement
of Belfield, who estimated that a single bacterium which weighs,
approximately, only the 1-40,000,000 part of a grain, if given plenty
of food and plenty of “elbow room,” would so rapidly develop that in
three days it would form a mass weighing 800 tons! It is the old story
of the blacksmith who was to get a penny for the first nail, two for
the second, four for the third, and so on till a set of shoes would
cost more than Crœsus could pay for.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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