TETANUS. 491 



The most important particulars in the successful treatment of 

 tetanus are quietude and nourishment, medicinal agents playing 

 but a subordinate part. 



Quietude having been secured, nourishment is to be given by 

 allowing the patient milk and thick gruel to drink ; along with 

 these, eggs may be mixed with advantage. A little hay or grass 

 placed in the rack will often keep the animal quiet, although 

 the attempts to swallow sometimes cause a paroxysm. 



The medicinal agents that have been used in the treatment of 

 tetanus are numerous : purgatives, opium, tobacco. Calabar bean, 

 woorara, prussic acid, calomel, chloroform, belladonna, hyoscya- 

 mus, cannabis indicus, arsenic, chloral-hydrate, &c., &c. I have 

 treated tetanus in various ways, and am satisfied that administra- 

 tion of a dose of aloes, if it can be given without exciting the 

 horse, followed by belladonna — which is only to be given when the 

 patient shows symptoms of great excitement — is the best method 

 of treatment. The Calabar bean, given in doses of two to four 

 ounces of the tincture, has a most wonderful effect upon the 

 spasms, the pulse, and the breathing; but this effect is very 

 transient, and is succeeded by a return of the spasms with great 

 severity. The seat of the wound is from time to time to be 

 smeared with the extract of belladonna ; and when the bella- 

 donna is administered internally, it should be either dissolved in 

 the animal's mash or drink, or else placed between his teeth, 

 allowance being made for the probable waste. 



The prussic acid treatment, so highly recommended by the 

 late Mr. Lawson of Manchester, has, with me, proved to have 

 no special superiority ; and doubtless the success of Mr. 

 Lawson in the treatment of tetanus was due more to the tact 

 and skill of the man than to any virtue contained in the 

 remedy. 



Those cases of tetanus which terminate favourably take usually 

 about six weeks before the spasmodic contractions entirely sub- 

 side. As soon as they can eat good food, they are to have it 

 liberally. Corn, roots, and hay in the winter ; corn and grass 

 in the summer, and a few doses of tonic medicine, such as the 

 sulphate of iron, will materially assist convalescence. 



In the fatal cases of tetanus, the breath very frequently be- 

 comes foetid prior to death, and if the mouth be examined, a 

 quantity of slate-coloured epithelium will be found on the inner 

 surfaces of the lips, gums, and tongue. 



