TETANUS — LOCKED JAW. 47 



the body being most affected, and the animal, in consequence, is 

 forced to roach his back and contract his belly and flanks, the name 

 of emprosthotonos is given to it : should the body be drawn by the 

 spasm to one side, that of pleurosthotonos. Of these varieties 

 trismus and opisthotonos are most frequent. The limbs are seldom 

 spasmed to the degree that other parts are; at least, not early 

 in the attack : and in consequence of this it is that the horse is able 

 to walk, even at a time when his jaw is immoveably fixed, and 

 that he has no power of flexing either his neck or back. 



The Division made of tetanus by writers in general is into 

 idiopathic and traumatic ; the latter designating that form or kind 

 of the disease which results from wounds ; the former that which 

 is said to have a spontaneous origin. Dr. Marshall Hall, in conso- 

 nance with his doctrine of excito-motory pathology, has proposed 

 to make the division into central and centripetal tetanus : the first 

 indicating that disease which originates within the spinal canal ; 

 the last, that produced by wound, or ''other source of eccentric 

 nervous and convulsive affection, as deranged stomach or bowels, 

 worms, &c." Of the two classifications, I must confess I regard 

 Dr. Hall's as the one most consonant with all we profess to know 

 about the source or origin of tetanus ; and therefore I prefer it, and 

 shall not, as I proceed, lose sight of it. 



Tetanus is either acute or chronic, according to its in- 

 tensity and rapidity of progress. Traumatic cases are in general 

 of an acute character ; they are rapid in their course, and fatal in 

 their termination : whereas, such as have their origin in other 

 causes are apt to be comparatively tardy in their progress, and, for 

 that reason, afford us more chance of cure. 



Tetanus is epidemic or endemic whenever it becomes 

 unusually prevalent, or shews itself in particular localities to an 

 unusual extent. There have been seasons in which tetanus has so 

 commonly supervened on injuries, that practitioners have dreaded 

 its appearance on every occasion when a horse has been brought 

 to them for scratches, or punctures, or wounds of any sort ; and in 

 this epidemic form the disease has, unfortunately, been observed 

 to be unusually fatal in its tendency. 



The Traumatic Species of Centripetal Tetanus is the 



