200 AMERICAN FARMER'S HORSE BOOK. 



ment; but, unfortunately, they are apt to be overlooked, 

 until the disease is so firmly rooted that remedies either can 

 not be used at all, or utterly fail to meet the needs of the 

 case. The disease first exhibits itself in the jaws, but soon 

 extends to every part of the body. Its popular name by 

 no means expresses all that it really is. It is no more an 

 affection of the jav^s than it is of the head, the back, or the 

 legs. 



In studying the character and developments of this malady, 

 we have been glad to avail ourselves of the observations and 

 researches of others, especially of recognized authorities in 

 veterinary science in Europe, where it has challenged the 

 practitioner's skill so much more than in this country. That 

 excellent writer upon the horse, Mr. Youatt, says : 



" Tetanus is evidently an affection of the nerves. A small 

 fiber of some nerve has been injured, and the effect of that 

 injury has spread to the origin of- the nerve ; the brain then 

 becomes affected, and universal diseased action follows. Te- 

 tanus is spasm of the whole frame, not merely of one set of 

 muscles, but of their antagonists also. * * * Tetanus is 

 usually the result of the injury of some nervous fiber, and 

 the effect of that lesion propagated to the brain.* The foot 

 is the inost frequent source, or focus, of tetanic injury. It 

 has been pricked in shoeing, or. wounded by something on 

 the road. The horse becomes lame; the injury is carelessly 

 treated, or not treated at all; the lameness, however, dis- 

 appears, but the wound has not healed. There is an un- 

 healthiness about it, and, at the expiration of eight or ten 

 days, tetanus appears. Some nervous fiber has been irritated 

 or inflamed by the accident, slight as it was.". 



In this country, lock-jaw generally proves fatal, not only 

 from neglect in treating it until too late, but sometimes from 

 the actual starvatioti of its victim. The owner seldom seems 

 to consider that the poor animal needs food quite as much 

 as when in health, or, perhaps, even more than at that time. 

 Disease and the most exhausting form of muscular action 

 are rapidly consuming his strength, while the stomach and 



