Tetanus.
The fourth disease for which an antidote in the form of antitoxin has been developed is tetanus, commonly known as lockjaw. This is a bacterial disease caused by a specific germ, the peculiarity of which, in its progress, is a long-continued spasm of certain muscles of the body. The germs are commonly found in dirt, garden soil being always full of them, and whenever the skin is broken by any object, such as a rusty nail or a knife not clean, lockjaw may be the result. Rather curiously, it is particularly likely to develop after gunpowder wounds, and the number of cases of tetanus after the Fourth of July is notable. This special prevalence of the disease is so well recognized that health officers usually lay in a large stock of antitoxin about the first of July, awaiting the inevitable demand for it.
The disease is most commonly contracted from wounds which occur in the hands or the feet, although it may be the result of wounds in other parts of the body. Very often the wound may be so insignificant as to escape the attention, as a pin prick, and yet be followed by an attack of tetanus. Formerly, the universal treatment for injuries from which tetanus was feared was to firmly cut out all portions of the flesh and skin which might have been infected. Sometimes cauterization was employed, as was done also with cases of rabies, and, if it were possible to reach the virus in the wounds before it escaped into the blood, such a method of treatment would be quite reasonable, but it is quite beyond hope to prevent infection in a jagged wound by cutting out adjacent flesh, with no regard to the dissolved poison. The more reasonable treatment is to inject the antitoxin, which neutralizes the poison and prevents, or at least minimizes, the disease.
CHAPTER XXI
HYGIENE AND LAW
One of the fundamental principles of society is that each individual must, in his methods of living, conduct himself with a due regard for the rights, comfort, and health of others in the same society. A single man or a single family living alone on a desert island requires no restrictions of conduct, since there are no fellow-beings on whom his violations of good conduct might react. The inhabitants of small villages with small families on large lots are but little concerned with laws governing social intercourse, since, at best, the amount of that intercourse is inconsiderable. But, as population becomes greater, as congestion increases, and as civilization and its requirements develop, the need for law governing the interrelations of individuals becomes imperative. Such laws deal with the moral life under many phases, and the courts exist for the enforcement of such laws as the people themselves, through their legislatures, demand for their own self-protection.
One of the primitive laws found necessary, even among uncivilized people, is that against theft, and, whether committed in the barbarous tribes of Africa or on the frontier plains of the West, the act is recognized as being contrary to the greatest good of the community, and, if detected, is severely punished. As civilization advances, the code of laws found necessary becomes more and more complex, and, although use has made obedience to such laws almost second nature, it is hardly possible to-day to escape the immediate restraint of such laws for more than a moment at a time throughout any period of twenty-four hours.
Principle of laws of hygiene.