CHOREA, SPASM, CONVULSION, AND PARALYSIS. 151 



Nitrate of silver, ground very fine 3 grains 



Carbonate of iron, powdered 2 drachms 



Gentian ditto 3 drachms 



Conserve of roses sufficient to make twelve, nine, or six balls, 



of which, give one every night ; and if the medicine is well borne 

 on the stomach, give it both night and morning. It is the practice 

 at the Royal Veterinary School of Lyons to treat dogs in this 

 complaint with the gum asafoetida, dissolved in vinegar, both by 

 the mouth and by clysters ; and the accounts are very favourable 

 with regard to it, if it be sufficiently long continued, but most so 

 in those cases where there is neither paralysis nor marasmus. 

 Other tonic formulae may also be used, in which the sulphate of 

 iron, sulphate of zinc, quinine, very minute doses of the strychnine, 

 as one-eighth of a grain, may any of them enter. It is not, 

 however, improbable that the disease will baffle every attempt at 

 cure. 



Spasm differs from chorea, principally in its being an irregular 

 motion rather of the internal than the external muscular fibre : 

 when very violent and diffused, it degenerates into what is popu- 

 larly understood by convulsions, in which way it is that partial 

 spasm, particularly chorea, ends : thus the twitchings which affect 

 the limbs in distemper, when, instead of lessening they increase 

 daily, usually end by one universal convulsive attack, which de- 

 stroys -the animal. Dogs are very subject to spasm from a variety 

 of occasional causes ; it is also the usual accompaniment of several 

 idiopathic diseases. Rheumatism produces spasmodic affections 

 of the bowels, and often likewise of the neck, fore extremities, &c. 

 In rabies, spasmodic contractions are very common. Spasmodic 

 colic is not unfrequent in dogs ; it also affects the bowels of pup- 

 pies in a very particular manner sometimes. — See Colic. 



Cramp, which is the familiar term among sporstmen for spasm, 

 occasionally seizes the limbs suddenly, attacking first one and 

 then the other. Tetanus, or locked jaw, is also a spasmodic affection. 



The best external antispasmodics are warm the bath, with close 

 confinement in flannel afterwards. In some cases, an extraordinary 



