446 LOCK-JAW. 



to have been brought on by excessive drinking. It was necessary to 

 use very powerful means of coercion, and the most powerful medi- 

 cines, opiates, cathartics, emetics, etc., were given. Dr. Currie 

 commenced the case June 2d, and went on to the 21st of July, 

 at which time he tells us that " perplexed with these extremes (the 

 patient getting alternately better and worse, and bearing in mind 

 the success of the cold bath in convulsive diseases), I ordered it to 

 be tried on the present occasion. The insanity returning with great 

 violence on the 21st, he was thrown headlong into the cold bath. He 

 came out calm and nearly rational, and this interval of reason con- 

 tinued for twenty -four hours. The same practice was directed to be 

 repeated as often as the state of insanity occurred." On the 23d 

 the patient was again thrown into the cold bath in the height of his 

 fury as before. As he came out he was thrown in again, and this 

 was repeated five different times, till he could not leave the bath 

 without assistance. He became perfectly calm and rational in the 

 bath. " This patient," continues Dr. Currie, " continued with us 

 sometime afterward, bathing every other day, and taking the oxide of 

 zinc in small quantities. He never relapsed, and was discharged 

 some time afterward in perfect health of body and mind." 



Dr. Dunglison, in speaking of the cold douche as one of the 

 very best tranquilizers that can be employed in cases of furious 

 insanity, maintains that a column of water the size of the arm, or 

 even much less, made to fall from a height on the head of the far 

 ious maniac, w T ill almost always tame him. One of the most frantic 

 cases that had ever fallen under his care was tranquilized by the 

 column proceeding from the spout of an ordinary teapot, made to 

 fall upon the head from the elevation of a few feet. 



The cold dash, administered by pouring water on the head of the 

 patient from some height, was used by Esquirol with entire success. 

 The patient, a girl afflicted with mania, and of a nervous tempera- 

 ment, was placed with a garment covering her in a common 

 wash-tub, and water was poured in small quantities on her head till 

 it covered her body, and shivering ensued. On a second application 

 of this method, which was for some time resisted, it was followed 

 by a deep sleep, accompanied by copious sweating; and when the 

 patient awoke she was found to have recovered her senses. 



In the treatment of the insane, we should proceed on the same 

 general principles as in any other case of bodily derangement. We 

 are to use the rubbing wet sheet, the wet pack, the shallow bath, 

 the affusion, the plunge, the wet-girdle, clysters, and, in short, the 

 whole routine of the treatment, according to the nature of the case. 

 This, I need hardly add, needs knowledge, skill, experience and 

 good judgment in those who are to direct the treatment. In no 

 department of the medical art are these more necessary than in this. 



I.OCK-JAW. 



Dr. Watson recommends the cold-bath in this affection. He 



