402 PRACTICE OF PHYSIC. 



CHAP. L OF TETANUS. 



MCCLVII. Both Nosologists and Practical Writers have 

 distinguished Tetanic complaints into the several species of Te- 

 tanus, Opisthotonos, and Emprosthotonos ; and I have in my 

 Nosology put the Trismus, or Locked Jaw, as a genus distinct 

 from the Tetanus. All this, however, I now judge to be im- 

 proper ; and am of opinion, that all the .several terms mentioned 

 denote, and are applicable only to different degrees of one and 

 the same disease ; the history and cure of which I shall endeav- 

 our to deliver in this chapter. 



MCCLVIII. Tetanic complaints may, from certain causes, 

 occur in every climate that we are acquainted with ; but they 

 occur most frequently in the warmest climates, and most 

 commonly in the warmest seasons of such climates. These 

 complaints affect all ages, sexes, temperaments, and com- 

 plexions. The causes from whence they commonly pro- 

 ceed, are cold and moisture applied to the body while it 

 is very warm, and especially the sudden vicissitudes of heat 

 and cold. Or the disease is produced by punctures, lacer- 

 ations, or other lesions of nerves in any part of the body. There 

 are, probably, some other causes of this disease ; but they are 

 neither distinctly known, nor well ascertained. Though the 

 causes mentioned do, upon occasion, affect all sorts of persons, 

 they seem, however, to attack persons of a middle age more fre- 

 quently than the older or younger, the male sex more frequent- 

 ly than the female, and the robust and vigorous more frequent- 

 ly than the weaker. 



MCCLIX. If the disease proceed from cold, it commonly 

 c omes on in a few days after the application of such cold ; but, 

 if it arise from a puncture or other lesion of a nerve, the dis- 

 ease does not commonly come on for many days after the lesion 

 has happened, very often when there is neither pain nor uneas- 

 iness remaining in the wounded or hurt part, and very frequent- 

 ly when the wound has been entirely healed up. 



MCCLX. The disease sometimes comes on suddenly to a 

 violent degree, but more generally it approaches by slow de- 

 grees to its violent state. In this case it comes on with a sense 



