TETANUS, OR LOCKED JAW. 



103 



and with every dog — becomes rabid and dies, the horse too frequently follows him at 

 no great distance of time. 



If a horse is bitten by a dog under suspicious circumstances, he should be carefully 

 examined, and every wound, and even the slightest scratch, well burned with the 

 lunar caustic (nitrate of silver). The scab should be removed and the operation 

 repeated on the third day. The hot iron does not answer so well, and other caustics 

 are not so manageable. In the spring of 1827, four horses were bitten near Hyde 



Park, by a mad dog. To one of them the lunar caustic was twice severely applied 



he lived. The red-hot iron was unsparingly used on the others, and they died. Th(5 

 caustic must reach every part of the wound. At the expiration of the fourth month, 

 the horse may be considered to be safe. 



TETANUS, OR LOCKED JAW. 



Tetanus is one of the most dreadful and fatal diseases to which the horse is sub- 

 ject. It is called locked jaw, because the muscles of the jaw are earliest affected, 

 and the mouth is obstinately and immovably closed. It is a constant spasm of all 

 the voluntary muscles, and particularly of those of the neck, the spine, and the head. It 

 is generally slow and treacherous in its attack. The horse, for a day or two, does 

 not appear to be quite well ; he does not feed as usual ; he partly chews his food, and 

 drops it ; and he gulps his water. The owner at length finds that the motion of the 

 jaws is considerably limited, and some saliva is drivelling from the mouth. If he 

 tries he can only open the mouth a very little way, or the jaws are perfectly and 

 rigidly closed ; and thus the only period at which the disease could have been suc- 

 cessfully combated is lost. A cut of a horse labouring under this disease is here 

 given, which the reader will do well to examine carefully. 



The first thing that 

 , ,__ , strikes the observer is a 



ul(if///\^___,.^ -~~.^^ ^^'- — ^ij^' ^/''^'^'^ protrusion of the muxzle, 



fe? . /^tv .'f- ^-V Xv" ^/^^^,,,^<^ and stiffness of the neck ; 



and, on passing the hand 

 down it, the muscles will 

 be found singularly promi- 

 nent, distinct, hard, knotty, 

 and unyielding. There is 

 dilticulty in bringing tht 

 head round, and still 

 greater difficulty in bend- 

 ing it. The eye is drawn 

 deep within "the socket, 

 and, in consequence of 

 this, the fatty matter be- 

 hind the eye is pressed 

 forward ; the haw is also protruded, and there is an appearance of strabismus, or 

 squinting, in an outward direction. 



The ears are erect, pointed forward, and immovable ; if the horse is spoken to, or 

 threatened to be struck, they change not their position. Considering the beautiful 

 play of the ear of the horse when in health, and the kind of conversation which he 

 maintains by the motion of it, there is not a more characteristic symptom of tetanus 

 than this immobility of the ear. The nostril is expanded to the utmost, and there is 

 little or no play of it, as in hurried or even natural breathing. The respiration is 

 usually accelerated, yet not always so ; but it is uniformly laborious. The pulse 

 gives little indication of the severity of the disease. It is sometimes scarcely affected. 

 It will be rapidly accelerated when any one approaches the animal and offers to touch 

 him, but it presently quiets down again almost to its natural standard. After a while, 

 however, the heart begins to sympathise with the general excitation of the system, 

 and the pulse increases in frequency and force until the animal becomes debilitated, 

 when it beats yet quicker and quicker, but diminishes in power, and gradually fluttera 

 and dies away. 



