VMC 311: Systematic Veterinary Bacteriology and Mycology (2+1)

HISTORY

• Tetanus has been known from very early times, having been described by Hippocrates.
• But the knowledge of the disease was achieved only in 1884.
• Rosenbach –1886 - demonstrated a slender bacillus with round terminal spores in a case of tetanus.
• Kitasato –1889 – isolated C.tetani in pure culture and reproduced the disease in animals by inoculation of pure culture.
• The Greek term “tetanus” which means ‘contracture’ has been taken from the Latin medicine “rigor”.