SYMPTOMS. 409 



strcngtliGnecT when wc aro aware tliat tlio same absence of 

 inflammatory lesions is characteristic of those cases which have 

 succumbed from the action of such poisons as strychnine, 

 where also, during life, identical phenomena were exhibited to 

 those met with in this diseased condition. 



Throughout the course of the alimentary canal there is some- 

 times exhibited ecchymoses and inflammatory patches ; these 

 are very variable in extent and situation. The lungs and 

 upper portions of the air-tube are also, in many cases, in a 

 similar condition. 



Symptoms. — Although, strictly speaking, the term ' tetanus ' 

 indicates involuntary spasm and rigidity of the greater number 

 of the voluntary muscles, it is ordinarily employed to indicate 

 all forms of the disease, irrespective of the extent of the group 

 involved. When the muscles of the face and neck are chiefly 

 affected, resulting in persistent closure of the jaws, from which 

 we have the characteristic name Lock-jaw, it is spoken of as 

 Trismus. When the muscles of the back and loins are the 

 structures disturbed, producing an elevation of the head and 

 neck, and bending of the loins downwards, the condition is 

 termed opisfliotonos. Emprosthotonos is the state of muscular 

 contraction directly opposed to opistliotonos, viz., bending of 

 the body and neck forward, with arching of the spine ; while 

 pleurosthotonos is the name given to the bending of the body 

 in a lateral direction, in obedience to lateral muscular con- 

 traction. 



Amongst our patients, if we except the condition known as 

 trismus, none of these separate forms of the disease are 

 common. Karely do we find the muscles of a particular region 

 alone affected, there being most frequently involvement to a 

 greater or less extent of all the voluntary muscles, resulting in 

 the production of the condition ordinarily recognised by the 

 general term fetanos or orthotonos. 



From the outset to the termination of the disease the 

 symptoms may be said to be diagnostic. The earliest are 

 generally in connection with the action of the muscles of 

 deglutition and mastication. The animal is observed to grind 

 his teeth in a peculiar manner, with a rather profuse secretion 

 of saliva, which appears about the angles of the mouth. There 

 seems a soreness in the res^ion of the throat, occasioning a 



