468 TETANUS TRIMUSS LOCKED-JAW. 



animals exposed to snow-storms and cold winds, and is also 

 said to occur at any age from the influence of excessive 

 heat. The condition of the alimentary canal materially 

 influences the development of tetanus, and it has been 

 known to occur after horses have eaten wheat or wheaten 

 flour. Irritation of the digestive organs is sometimes 

 capable of inducing the disease independently of other 

 causes. 



The tetanic spasms are termed tonic from their prolonged 

 character and not being interrupted by relaxations, such as 

 you have in clonic spasms or convulsive contractions. The 

 term tetanus is used to indicate the spasmodic affection im- 

 plicating the whole muscular apparatus. Sometimes the 

 disease affects the muscles of mastication, and is then 

 called Trismus (r|/, stride). Special forms of tetanus have 

 been described according to the symptoms induced by the 

 violent contractions of special groups of muscles. The 

 powerful superior cervical and dorsal muscles occasionally 

 bend the spine backwards. This is called opisthotonos, and 

 is occasionally met with in horses and cattle. An inter- 

 esting case of this description was published in the first 

 volume of the Edinburgh Veterinary Review. J&Tr Maclaren 

 Kitching of Cupar, who reported the case, furnished the 

 following particulars : 



" On July 4, 1854, I was requested to visit a black mare, the pro- 

 perty of Mr Reid, late of Cruivie. The history I could glean was, 

 that a day or two before, the ploughman was driving the mare in a 

 cart, and when about two and a- half miles from home, she stood, broke 

 out in a perspiration, and shook all over ; he drove her home, and 

 found her lame in the off fore leg. When seen by me, the mare could 

 not well move the said leg forward ; the pulse was regular ; the muscles 

 of the arm were of less size than on the near side ; the triceps extensor 

 brachii was flaccid, and not half the size of the near one. I considered 

 it a case of lesion of the said muscles ; gave a dose of physic, and 



