TETANUS. 4tJT 



Ti-aumatic tetanus may result from a very trivial injury, 

 although it is most likely to do so after a severe laceration or 

 punctui-e, more especially when nerves are injured. Wounds 

 of the feet and joints, although giving rise to a high degree of 

 irritative fever, seldom cause tetanus, and in my experience 

 wounds in the region of the quarte^-s, thighs, and fore arm, more 

 especially if the great nerves of those parts are injured, are those 

 most liable to cause ii; 



The operations which are most commonly succeeded by', 

 tetanus are docking, castration, the insertion of setons, and in 

 one instance which fell under my notice, a modez-ate blister to 

 a fore leg proved a cause of tetanus. 



Tetanus, whether traumatic or idiopathic, is rarely seen in^ 

 certain districts. Mr. Cartwright of Whitchurch informs me- 

 tliat he htis never seen a case of tetanus in his district, although 

 lie has practised there for forty-five years ; and during the ten 

 years I practised in Bradford I saw but two cases, both of which 

 were idiopathic. In other districts of the country, tetanus, ofi 

 both kinds, is exceedingly prevalent. 



Tetanus is occasionally seen as an enzootic disease, simul- 

 taneously attacldng several animals in the same district. 

 During the summer of 1858 I witnessed ten cases in ft 

 fortnight. Some of these were traumatic, whilst the exciting 

 cause of the others could not be traced. Some writers on 

 veterinary surgery state that tetanus is more apt to prevail in 

 cold than in hot weather. My experience is contrary to this, 

 and that it is mostly during worm weather that the disease 

 prevails to any extent, although isolated cases of it occur at all 

 times of the year. 



There are several varieties of the disease, and the word 

 tetanus is made use of to denote it generally. As a generic 

 term, it comprehends all the varieties, but when not used 

 in this sense it * implies that the disease involves all classes 

 of muscles equally. AVhen the muscles of mastication are 

 alone involved, it is called trismus. When it chiefly affects 

 tlie superior cervical and dorsal muscles, causing the head 

 to be elevated and the spine curved downwards, it is called 

 opistkoi onos. When the muscles of one side are affected, it is 

 called ie'anus lateralis, or pleurostJwtoiws; and in other cases — 

 tare even in the human being — the inferior muscles are cliiefl jr 



