TETANUS — LOCKED JAW. 45 



this simple operation, would not have come to light until after 

 death. The following very interesting case, sent to The Veteri- 

 narian in 1840, by Mr. Spooner, V.S., Southampton, will strik- 

 ingly illustrate this : — 



Muscat, a grey Arabian stallion, fourteen years of age, the property of Lord 

 Palmerston, by whom he had been several years used as a stallion, was per- 

 ceived to manifest considerable weakness in his hind quarters. When led 

 out, "he somewhat reeled in his walk, and, when made to trot, he did not 

 advance his legs under his body as he ought to have done. This weakness 

 was inost perceptible in turning." When he had mounted a mare, which he 

 did with as much desire as ever, he " could not advance far enough to effect 

 a penetration." Although for a couple of months after this he maintained 

 his condition, then his ghitei muscles were perceived to waste ; and his hind 

 legs, particularly the near one, to become cedematous. At the earlier part 

 of his illness, he evinced no pain on pressing the loins ; but latterly he has 

 flinched a great deal ; and now, after lying down, experiences much difficulty 

 in rising. In another month, Muscat could not retain his urine. About this 

 time Mr. S. examined him per rectum^ and, " about twelve inches from the 

 anus, could distinctly feel a hard tumour of considerable size adhering closely 

 to the spine, and situated mostly towards its left side." Finding the case 

 hopeless, Mr. S. recommended that Muscat be destroyed. 



A large tumour was discovered closely adherent to the last lumbar and 

 first sacral vertebrae, of a dark colour, somewhat like a gland in appearance, 

 several pounds in weight, and occupying the space of two human hands. It 

 had so pressed upon the posterior cava and iliac veins, that their external 

 coats had become absorbed ; the caliber of the vessel being lessened, ac- 

 counted for the oedematous legs. The nerves, the sciatic in particular, must 

 also have suffered considerable compression. Besides the principal one, there 

 were several small tumours in the neighbourhood, and similar were found, 

 in a diminutive form, in nearly every muscle in the body. There was one 

 about the size of a small egg, which could be felt above the elbow, and this 

 had been there ever since he had been in his lordship's possession : the grooms 

 used to say it was a pistol-shot. Natives "of Arabia are, Mr. Spooner be- 

 lieves, peculiarly subject to hard black tumours, which penetrate often to the 

 bone. " Can this," Mr. S. pertinently inquires, " in an Arabian horse, be of 

 a similar nature ?" 



TETANUS— LOCKED JAW. 



The word tetanus is of Greek extraction, and literally signifies 

 "stretching." Its application to the disease we are about to consider 

 appears to consist in the appearance of tension, which their rigidity 



