

TETANUS. 197 



The next of the small intestines is the jejunum, so called from its 

 being generally empty. It is smaller in bulk than the duodenum, and the 

 chyme passes rapidly through it. 



Next in the list is the ileum ; but it is difficult to say where the jejunum 

 terminates and the ileum commences, except that the latter is usually one 

 fifth longer than the former. 



At the termination of the ileum the ccecum makes its appearance, with 

 a kind of valvular opening into it, of such a nature that everything that 

 passes along it having reached the blind or closed end must ^return in 

 order to escape ; or rather the office of the caecum is to permit certain 

 alimentary matters and all fluids to pass from the ileum, but to oppose 

 their return. 



The colon is an intestine of very large size, being one of the most 

 capacious, as well as one of the longest, of the large intestines. It com- 

 mences at the caecum caput coli, and soon expands into a cavity of greater 

 dimensions than even that of the stomach itself. Having attained this 

 singular bulk, it begins to contract, and continues to do so during its 

 course round the caecum, until it has completed its second flexure, where 

 it grows so small as scarcely to exceed in calibre one of the small intes- 

 tines ; and, though, from about the middle of this turn it again swells out 

 by degrees, it never afterwards acquires its former capaciousness ; indeed, 

 previously to its junction with the rectum, it once more materially differs 

 in size. 



At the upper part of the margin of the pelvis the colon terminates in 

 the rectum, which differs from the caecum and colon by possessing only a 

 partial peritoneal covering, and being destitute of bands and cells. It 

 enlarges towards its posterior extremity, and is furnished with a circular 

 muscle, the sphincter ani ; adapted to preserve the anus closed, and to 

 retain the feculent matter until so much of it is accumulated in the rectum 

 as to excite a desire to discharge it. 



TETANUS, 



a disease of great fatality, often depends upon the condition of the stomach ; 

 but it is not frequent in dogs. 



Why the dog is so little subject to tetanus, or lock-jaw, I am unable 

 to explain. Sportsmen say that it sometimes attacks- him when, being 

 heated in the chace, he plunges into the water after the stag. The French 

 ^ive it the name of mal de cerf, from stags being supposed to be attacked 

 in a similar way, and from the same cause. In the course of nearly forty 

 years' practice, I have seen but four cases of it. The first arose from a 

 wound in the foot. The cause of the second I could not learn. In both 

 rhe spasmodic action was dreadful as well as universal. The dogs lay on 

 r heir sides, the neck and legs stretched out, and the upper legs kept some 

 jnches from the ground by the intensity of the spasm. They might be 

 ^aken up by either leg, and not a portion of the frame change its direction. 

 . It the same time, in their countenance, and by their hoarse cries, they 

 indicated the torture which they endured. 



In the third case, which occurred 12th June, 1822, the head was drawn 

 j -ermanently on one side, and the whole body formed a kind of bow, the 

 ( og walking curiously sideways, often falling as it walked, and frequently 

 screaming violently. I ordered him to be well rubbed with an ammoniacal 



