40G TETANUS. 



period, but generally through their whole life. I have cer- 

 tainly known dogs receiving, as a chief portion of their food 

 for a considerable time, the flesh of horses which have died 

 while suffering from tetanus, and cannot recollect any evil 

 results occurring amongst these, nor yet any cases of tetanus 

 attributable to this circumstance. 



Although the condition of the cord, the nerve-centre appa- 

 rently chiefly or solely involved, is usually regarded as in a 

 condition of undue excitation, some pathologists have con- 

 sidered a condition of depression as that which more truly and 

 satisfactorily explains the phenomena. 



All our domestic animals are liable to become subjects of 

 this perverted nervous activity ; of these, horses and sheep are 

 the most susceptible. 



I am not aware tliat the statistics of tetanus enable us to 

 speak with any amount of confidence as to the greater or less 

 susceptibility of particular breeds of horses, or the periods of 

 life at which these seem, under favourable inducing influences, 

 most liable to its invasion. Preponderance of evidence seems 

 to favour the opinion that a high temperature of itself, or 

 suddenly alternated with one much lower, is more favourable 

 to its appearance than the opposite, or where the range of 

 the thermometer is less extensive and less liable to sudden 

 changes. 



It is spoken of under two forms — Traumatic, following the 

 infliction of wounds or injuries ; and Idiopathic, that which 

 arises from causes internal, or which to our senses are inap- 

 preciable. Each of these may be met with in forms acute as 

 well as chronic. 



In our patients the appearance of tetanus, apart from appre- 

 ciable causes, is a much more frequent occurrence than in the 

 human subject. Considering that, as far as we are able to 

 discover both these forms of tetanus, the traumatic and 

 idiopathic are precisely alike in their nature, development, and 

 general and special results, it would probably be more correct 

 not to attempt any such division. 



The apparently exciting causes of the so-called traumatic 

 form of the disease are wounds of all kinds, more particularly 

 when inflicted in dense tissues largely su})plied with sensibility ; 

 and injuries apart from Avounds, as fractures or bruises. It 



