418 REMARKS AND OBSERVATIONS ON 



Of Tetanies. — While I was last in Jamaica 1784, three 

 more cases of tetanus occurred, and were cured by the cold 

 affusion ; see my paper on tetanus in the 6th volume of Lond. 

 Med. Obs. 



The first was a Negro child, whose parents were very young, 

 and were belonging to myself. From the mother lying in at 

 her own house, and kept too warm, the infant began to be dis- 

 ordered, about the seventh day from the birth. I caused 

 the mother and child to be removed to the dwelling-house, 

 and immediately gave the child a tea-spoonful of castor oil, 

 and, so soon as possible, an injection with sea-salt. These 

 had their due effect. On the following day the child could 

 not suck, and it was frequently affected with spasms. The 

 jaws at times were close locked, and the trismus infantum 

 strongly marked. In the West Indies this disease is fre- 

 quent, and always fatal to new born children. It rarely hap- 

 pens to infants after the ninth day. 



I acquainted the mother that there were little hopes of 

 saving her child, and delivered the like opinion to the mid- 

 wife, a sensible woman of colour, then in the house. In this 

 hopeless case, I proposed the cold affusion, stating, that the 

 child, in the way it was, must soon die, and that, if my scheme 

 failed, there was no other. With some difficulty I got the 

 better of her prejudices ; the child was stripped, but in the 

 mean time had a strong fit on the midwife's lap. So soon as 

 it was over, she gave it to me, and I plunged it suddenly in 

 a small tub of cold well-water. Respiration was stopt for a 

 minute, the child was as stiff as a board. The midwife said, 

 " You have killed the child." I made her dry the skin with 

 a cloth, and rub the body briskly with oil. It began to 

 breathe, and the stiffness by degrees was got the better of. 

 About an hour afterwards it was put to the breast, and suck- 

 ed heartily. The spasms never returned, and the midwife 

 took all the merit of the cure to herself. The child lived two 

 years, and died of worm fever. 



