105 



THE HORSE. 



will be sufficiently apparent before the jaws are locked, and while medicine 

 can be administered with tolerable ease. 



The jaws are imnaturally fixed, and then he observes that there is a 

 stiffness of the neck; a difficulty in bringing the head round, and a 

 prominence, and hardness, and unyieldingness of all the muscles of 

 the neck ; with an unusual protrusion of the head. It next occurs that 

 the poor animal cannot bend his head. The retractor muscle (fig. gy 

 p. 98) is affected by spasm, and the eye is drawn into the socket — squint- 

 ing outward — and the haw protruding over a portion of it. The nos- 

 tril is expanded, the ear erect, and the countenance anxious ; — the back 

 and loins are stiff, and if he is turned in his stall, the whole body turns 

 at once like an unbending piece of wood. The muscles of the belly are 

 also affected by spasm, and he is tucked vp (his belly contracted and 

 drawn up) to a strange degree. The tail is erect, and constantly qui- 

 vering. The extremities are singularly fixed ; — the hind-legs straddling ; 

 — the fore-legs projecting forward and outward (as some one has aptly 

 described it) like the legs of a stool. The pulse at first not much 

 affected, but soon becoming quick, and small, and irregular , the breathing 

 more laborious as the disease proceeds ; and the countenance wild and 

 haggard, and expressive of extreme agony. The pain which attends the 

 cramp of one limb will enable us to judge of that which must accompany 

 universal spasm. If a person goes near the horse, or touches him in the 

 slightest way, although he may be unable to move, yet the sudden quicken- 

 ing of the pulse will tell what the animal feels and fears. So the disease 

 goes on for nine or ten days, until the animal is exhausted by the expen- 

 diture of nervous energy, and the continuance of torture. 



If, from strength of constitution or medical treatment, he should recover, 

 the first favourable symptom is a slight and short remission of the spasm ; 

 the time of the remission gradually lengthening, and the jaws a little 

 relaxing ; but the progress of cure is exceedingly slow, and the horse is 

 left very- weak. 



Tetanus is evidently an affection of the nerves. A small fibre of some 

 nerve has been injured, and the effect of that injury has spread to the 

 origin of the nerve ; the brain has become affected, and universal diseased 

 action speedily follows. Locked-jaw generally arises from a wound, and 

 oftenest a wound of a tendinous or ligamentous part ; but depending not 



