1024 EXPERIMENT OF LISTON. 



But the most important general fact connected 

 with the pathology of tetanus is, that in all the 

 most malignant cases, the circulation through the 

 lungs and general system is almost wholly arrested. 

 As an example of this, it is stated in Cooper's 

 First Lines of Surgery, that when Mr. Listen 

 amputated the arm of a patient, with a view of 

 stopping the progress of tetanus, brought on by a 

 wound in the thumb, scarcely any blood flowed 

 from the divided arteries, and no ligatures were 

 required to prevent hemorrhage. Corresponding 

 with this remarkable fact, we are informed by 

 Cullen, and many other distinguished writers on 

 pathology, that during the latter stages of the 

 disease, the blood is so far dissolved as not to 

 coagulate when drawn from the body, in which 

 it closely resembles the blood of patients labour- 

 ing under malignant cholera, which is, emphati- 

 cally a spasmodic disease. 



In the worst forms of tetanus, the generation of 

 animal heat by respiration is so far diminished, 

 that the temperature of the body is below the 

 natural standard; and the excitability is so far 

 reduced, that enormous quantities of brandy and 

 other diffusible stimulants have been often given 

 without producing intoxication, or any perceptible 

 increase of circulation. The system is in a con- 

 dition resembling the nearly suspended animation 

 from cold, during which the mephitic gases and 

 narcotic poisons produce little or no influence. 



