282 STABLE MANUAL AND HORSE DOCTOR 



hunting-field ; the dripping of water from an unsound roof, 

 or the eaves of a hayrick or shed when the animal has been 

 at ^rass, have been known to produce it. Worms, severe 

 visceral affections, and even bots (when producing solution 

 of continuity in the lining membrane of the stomach) are 

 assigned as causes of the tetanic spasm. 



In traumatic tetanus, upon pushing our inquiries, we may 

 gain clearer information. Tiiere has, perhaps, been some 

 slight injury ; a nail has been driven too close ; or a piece 

 of glass has cut the foot ; or a blow has been lodged just 

 above the eye ; or the knees have been recently broken ; or 

 the stable fork has been used to strike the horse about the 

 legs, and the point of it has only gone a little way into the 

 back sinews. Sometimes an operation lias been recently 

 performed. Let not the proprietor blame the surgeon, if 

 such should have been the case. Any puncture, however 

 small, may produce tetanus ; but it may not follow the most 

 severe and the larefest wounds. No means we know of can 

 originate it; no care or skill can prevent its appearance. 

 We may learn, however, that the tail has been docked or 

 nicked ; the wound has very nearly healeJ, and it may look 

 as well as could be desired ; or it may all at once have 

 assumed an unhealthy appearance, a thin ichorous fluid 

 may be discharged from it, and there may be a spongy 

 appearance around it. Most commonly the wound nearl}^ 

 heals ; almost at the moment of closing, without any 

 seeming unhealthy change of appearance, this alarming 

 affection bursts forth. 



The fibril of some nerve has been injured ; irritation 

 ensues. It rapidly spreads along the various branches of 

 that nerve, and, through the spinal marrow, affects the 

 whole body. 



Sympoms. — One of the first observable is a certain 

 stiffness about the head, and a peculiar mode of standing. 

 Upon raising the head, the haws of both eyes are pushed 

 out, giving to the countenance of the animal a strange 

 expression ; but sooner or later it extends all over the body. 

 By the tetanic action the haw is drawn partly over the 

 globe at the same time that the tension of other muscles 

 gives the eyes a vivid appearance, which ill accords with 

 the more placid effect of a protruded haw. The jaws are 

 not invariably fixed, though from their being generally 

 closed springs the popular name of the disorder. As the 



