THE MODERN HORSE DOCTOR. 191 



call the other form of centripetal tetanus, (having discussed the 

 traumatic variety,) is that which, from the absence of all wound 

 or injury, we have got into the habit of considering as idiopathic ; 

 though, in point of fact, while some cases so considered are, no 

 doubt, central, i. e., originate within the spinal marrow, others, 

 there seems good reason for believing, must be dependent upon 

 some irritation, either within the alimentary canal, or in some 

 other part of the body. Should this turn out to be the case, our 

 pathology of tetanus will have undergone essential improvement ; 

 and we shall be able to account, in a measure, for our therapeu- 

 tic agents succeeding in one case and failing in another — a fact 

 that has hitherto led us either to regard the asserted remedy as 

 useless, or to attribute its failure or success to an erroneous 

 source. In a word, by endeavoring to discover the real seat and 

 nature of two kinds or forms of disease which have hitherto been 

 confounded under the epithet idiopathic, it is manifest we are in 

 the road to a very considerable amendment of our method of 

 treatment." 



Mr. Percivall quotes also the opinions of Messrs. Karkeek 

 and Henderson in support of his own opinion as to the sympa- 

 thetic origin of tetanus ; and he introduces, with a view of substan- 

 tiating this theory, the opinion of that distinguished surgeon, Mr. 

 Abernethy, who, he says, " was of opinion that the injury, what- 

 ever it might be, leading to tetanus, first produced disorder of the 

 digestive organs; and that disorder occasioned derangement of 

 the functions of the spinal marrow, and, through it, of those of the 

 system at large r which latter derangement constituted tetanus." 

 On page 51 of Hippopathology, a passage occurs, so full of inter- 

 est to the American reader, that we take the liberty to transfer it 

 to our pages. 



" Mr. A. Henderson, V. S., London, who presented the Veter- 

 inary Medical Society with a good practical paper on tetanus in 

 1832, 'doubts if the horse has ever the disease except from sym- 

 pathy ; ' and in confirmation of this opinion states, that although 

 during life the symptoms have proved insufficient to direct his 

 attention to the seat of the source of irritation, examination after 

 death has manifested appearances which left no doubt on the 

 mind of Mr. H. about the nature of a case which he had at first 



