196 THE MODERN HORSE DOCTOR. 



there are plethoric or other active symptoms ? The answer, ag 

 it seems to us, is clearly in the negative. It is stated by all au- 

 thorities, and must be evident to all who have had any experience 

 in the disease, that there is no fever in tetanus ; and this of itself is 

 almost sufficient to prove our position; for so anxious have med- 

 ical men been to find some fever in maladies of this class, that 

 to admit its absence is almost equivalent to admitting the oppo- 

 site. Undoubtedly the vascular state in tetanus assumes many 

 aspects, and some of these are such as to deceive an unpractised 

 eye or an impatient finger. There can be no mistake in such 

 cases as have been described, but they may very readily be in 

 irritable subjects. In such persons, owing to the excitement of 

 examination, or some unusually severe pangs at the moment, 

 the pulse, when first felt, may beat with considerable force and 

 fulness, and so give rise to an impression of fever or plethora ; 

 but this rapidly passes off, and the color fades ; the pulse flags 

 and falters. The pulse, indeed, is eminently changeable, and 

 any excitement which may be manifested in it is quite momenta- 

 ry, in comparison with the almost constant state of depression. 

 It must also be borne in mind, as confirming the same view, that 

 in fatal cases the spasms of tetanus continue, and often increase, 

 in spite of the progressive failure of the circulatory powers — a 

 fact that is only explicable on the supposition that the spasms 

 are dependent upon the very reverse of vascular activity. The 

 same conclusions arise also out of the cadaveric rigidity ; for in 

 this case we have a state of tetanoid, or, rather, catalejptoid con- 

 traction, which subsists with stagnation and death of the blood, 

 and which endures untiringly until the muscles are broken up 

 by incipient decay. In spasms, therefore, as in tremulousness 

 and convulsion, there is abundant evidence of a decided lack of 

 circulatory power. It would seem, also, as if that lack were 

 greater in convulsion than in tremulousness, and in spasm than in 

 convulsion. * * * Tetanus, we learn from many surgeons, 

 is most apt to occur when soldiers are dispirited, exhausted, ill 

 fed, and exposed to cold. Cadaveric rigidity is the work of 

 death. In short, the causes of tremor, convulsion, and spasm 

 are such as go to confirm the deductions arising out of the con- 

 dition of the vascular, nervous, and muscular systems ; and the 



