Tetanus. 301 



and drawn toward each other at their tips, the facial muscles 

 may stand out visibly and are firm, the angle of the mouth is 

 drawn back, the veins of the head are full and prominent, saliva 

 froths or drivels from the lips, the tail is elevated and during 

 paroxysms will tremble, and the muscles of the back and limbs 

 are projecting and hard. The limbs are extended outward to 

 give a wider base of support. If moved, the general stiffness is 

 at once seen. The patient cannot be turned round in his stall, 

 he may not even be able to turn the neck to one side, and if 

 backed he resists, or accomplishes the movement only with the 

 greatest difficulty. In walking, the limbs are used as stilts with 

 little or no bending of the joints, and if turned, the body is not 

 bent but moved around with difficulty as if one rigid mass. The 

 pulse is small and hard, the breathing slightly hastened, and the 

 mucosae congested and reddened. The jaws may be firmly closed, 

 or they may still part for a time half to one inch. In all severe 

 cases the patient obstinately stands, and if he should drop, or lie 

 down, the breathing and spasms are usually encreased and, in 

 the efforts to rise, the respiratory muscles may become spastic 

 with promptly fatal results. 



In cattle the same general symptoms prevail. The stiffness of 

 neck and back, the habitual elevation of nose and tail, the stiff- 

 ness of the legs, propped outward for support, and moved like 

 unbending posts when made to walk, the hardness of the muscles, 

 standing out under the skin, the rigidity of the lips, firmly closed 

 or slightly opened, the general fixity of the erect, retracted ears, 

 and the sunken appearance of the eyes with marked protrusion 

 of the haw, are largely as in the horse. The muzzle is usually 

 dry and hot, the jaws clenched, the tongue firmly compressed 

 against the palate and covered with thick, tenacious mucus, and 

 the flanks are often flattened by the contraction of the oblique 

 muscles, so that they descend almost vertically from the lumbar 

 transverse processes. There is great difficulty in turning and 

 the trunk moves in rather a rigid mass without bending laterally, 

 and the limbs are stiff and stilted. Tympany of the rumen sets 

 in early with oppressed breathing and arrest of defecation and 

 urination, which had been already difficult. The reflex excita- 

 bility to noises, or other causes of disturbance is often less than 

 in the horse. In cases following metritis, this may be due in 

 part to the depressing poisons absorbed. 



