46 TETANUS— LOCKED JAW. 



and hardness give the muscles of the body, in consequence of a spas- 

 modic contraction of their fibres. By some of the old writers on 

 farriery we find the disorder called stag-evil — an appellation derived 

 from the French, mal de cerf- — not from any peculiar liability of the 

 deer to the complaint, but, apparently, from the resemblance there 

 exists between the stiff and erect carriage in his walk of the tetanic 

 horse to the natural stalking gait of the stag. We have the au- 

 thority of D'Arboval for asserting, that all our domesticated animals 

 are obnoxious to tetanus, and that the order of intensity of predis- 

 position runs thus: — first, the ass; next, the mule ; thirdly, the horse; 

 then the dog, the sheep, the ox. 



The Muscles affected are the voluntary. The acts of voli- 

 tion are either entirely suspended, or else are performable with so 

 much difficulty and pain that the animal can hardly be induced to 

 move. The involuntary muscles are not, in general, spasmed, at 

 least not in the incipient stages ; though a good deal of disturbance 

 of the actions of some of them is, on occasions, evinced in the latter 

 stages; contradicting the assertions of Cullen, that the secretory, 

 respiratory, and digestive functions remain imperturbed. Though 

 his general sensibility is painfully increased, neither in the animal 

 nor in man are the intellects impaired. The horse is watchful 

 and anxious about what is going on among his attendants, and, 

 to the last, continues sensible and obedient; verifying in the brute 

 what Larry observed of the tetanic man, that he may be said actu- 

 ally to "see himself die." 



The Muscles most subject to Spasm are those of the lower 

 jaw, neck, and back. When the muscles of the jaw are exclusively 

 spasmed, the disease is named trismus or locked jaw ; and these 

 appellations are often used — incorrectly however — synonymously 

 with tetanus, to denote the general disease ; a circumstance that 

 seems to have arisen from the notice in particular which is taken 

 of the jaw being "locked" or immoveable, to the disregard of the 

 spasm in other parts of the body. When the muscles of the neck 

 and back exhibit the greatest spasm, occasioning the patient to 

 carry his head stiffly erected, his neck rigidly ewed, and his back 

 crouched, the disease is characterised by the term opisthotonos ; 

 when the reverse is the case, the muscles of the inferior parts of 



