Chem. [f. TETANUS + -INE5.] † a. An old name for strychnine. b. A ptomaine, C15H30N2O4, obtained from meat extract containing Rosenbach’s microbe, the tetanus bacillus; occurring also in decaying corpses.
1857. Dunglison, Dict. Med. Sc., Tetanine, Strychnia.
1888. Brieger in Jrnl. Chem. Soc., LIV. 1317. Tetanine and Mytilotoxine … the hydrochlorides of these bases decompose gradually and lose their toxic properties.
1899. Cagney, trans. Jaksch’s Clin. Diagn., i. (ed. 4), 55. From cultivations of the [tetanus] bacillus, Brieger has isolated several ptomaines—tetanin, tetanotoxin, and spasmotoxin.
