1022 CAUSES OF TETANUS. 



It happens, however, in this, (as in many other 

 cases,) that the most pleasant, safe, and speedy 

 method of cure is to restore that which has been 

 lost. 



Mr. Morgan relates the case of a sailor who 

 deserted from his ship in the Thames, swam 

 ashore, continued in his wet clothes all night, 

 and was attacked with tetanus next morning. 

 He also states, what has been observed by many 

 others, that " the first complaint of the patient is, 

 that he has taken cold, and is suffering from sore 

 throat." (Lecture on Tetanus, 1833.) 



What is called traumatic tetanus has been 

 caused by dislocations, compound fractures, a 

 severe burn, painful surgical operations,* such 

 as castration, amputation of the breast, a limb, 

 and almost every description of local injury, from 

 a simple incision to the most serious laceration of 

 the soft parts. Mr. Morgan knew a case pro- 

 duced in a scholar by the blow of a schoolmaster's 

 cane across the back of the neck, and another 

 by a stroke of the same instrument on the back 

 of the hand. Baron Larrey also knew a case 

 produced by the lodgment of a fish bone in the 

 fauces. And Dr. Willan relates another case 

 that arose from intense anxiety of jnind. We 



* Hippocrates relates the case of Scamander of Larissa, in 

 whom tetanus was induced by a large incision, followed by the 

 actual cautery, in a case of diseased hip joint. (Epidemics, 

 Book v.) 



