CAUSES OF TETANUS. 1021 



the cerebral functions," as maintained by Bichat 

 and his disciples. Nor is it less manifest, that, 

 in cases of epilepsy, (or when the process of 

 respiration is suspended by exposure to the me- 

 phitic gases,) the power of the brain is arrested, 

 or nearly so, while the muscles continue to con- 

 tract with great force. In like manner, when 

 respiration is greatly diminished, as in cases of 

 cholera, the blood is sufficiently vitalized to enable 

 the muscles to contract, although not sufficiently 

 so to enable the brain to command their move- 

 ments, which is also the case in hysteria, chorea, 

 the convulsions of children, the spasmodic twitch- 

 ings of typhus, and the mobility of nearly all 

 individuals while in a low or very feeble state of 

 health. 



The predisposing causes of tetanus are exhaus- 

 tion from over exertion, or whatever diminishes 

 the general powers of life, such as the elevated 

 temperature of tropical climates, where it is more 

 frequent than in the middle latitudes, and more 

 so in the latter during summer than winter. But 

 all the best writers on pathology agree, that ex- 

 posure to cold after exertion in the hot sun, is by 

 far the most general cause of idiopathic tetanus. 

 Perhaps the most simple form of the disease is 

 that local affection termed a crick in the neck, 

 which is always produced by cold, and ought 

 therefore to be cured by cold, according to the 

 homoeopathic doctrine ofsimilia curantur similibus. 



