1012 PROXIMATE CAUSE OF SPASMS. 



equally in the dark in regard to the nature and 

 treatment of tetanus and all other spasmodic 

 diseases ? Has any one explained their proxi- 

 mate cause, or laid down any certain principles 

 of treatment which apply to all cases ? Besides, 

 the number of deaths from hydrophobia was only 

 15 throughout England and Wales, and 124 from 

 tetanus, in the year 1839, according to the Regis- 

 trar General ; whereas it was 25,408 from all 

 other spasmodic maladies. 



It was observed by Dr. Cullen, that " as we 

 know not the condition of the brain in the ordi- 

 nary conditions of the will, we are also ignorant 

 of its preternatural state in all involuntary move- 

 ments." And Mr. Morgan says, in a Lecture on 

 Tetanus, published in 1833, that " we can take 

 no credit to ourselves for curing a disease, respect- 

 ing the proper treatment of which we positively 

 know nothing." In accordance with the theory 

 of Boerhaave, that " convulsions are owing to a 

 vigorous influx of nervous influence into the 

 muscles," Bichat referred them to a " preterna- 

 tural activity of the cerebral functions."* Others 



dreadful engine of destruction, or perpetrate some thousand mur- 

 ders on the field of battle, would stand a much better chance of 

 receiving a great national reward, than if he were to discover an 

 exact method of saving millions of human beings from disease 

 and premature death. 



* Some late writers erroneously maintain that strychnia, brucia, 

 mix vomica, the upas ticuti, and other narcotic poisons, augment 

 the irritability of the muscular fibres ; therefore should be given 



