272 VETERINARY HOMCEOPATHY. 



known or vmknown, is invariably the fons et origo of all cases of 

 tetanus; this may strike some as an illogical argument; we cannot 

 help that; our faith remains the same, and it is rendered the more 

 firm in this direction by the evident relation, pathogenetically and 

 therapeutically, of certain drugs which have the power of produc- 

 ing on the healthy exactly similar symptoms to those presented in 

 a true case of tetanus, and their capacity to cure the disease when 

 it occurs in a patient. 



Although the term tetanus may refer to spasm and rigidity of 

 any of the voluntary muscles of the body, it is more generally 

 applied to those of the face and neck of the horse, in which situ- 

 ation the morbid affection is mostly observed; through the rigidity 

 of the muscles of the face, the jaws are closed, hence the charac- 

 teristic terra lockjaw. It would seem that a good warrant exists 

 for the accepted idea that the muscles of deglutition are the first 

 to experience an impression of a coming seizure, as one of the 

 earliest symptoms observable is an irritable champing and grind- 

 ing of the teeth, while at the same time saliva is rather profusely 

 secreted, which drips from the corners of the mouth, the position 

 of the head is almost invariably alike in all cases, the nose 

 being poked out so that the angle of the jaw is a decidedly obtuse 

 one; the muscles of the back of the neck become rigid, renderings 

 the protrusion of the nose a more marked feature. Further, 

 another essentially characteristic symptom is the spasmodic move- 

 ment of the membrane, provided by nature to wipe the surface of 

 the eyeball, termed the membrana niditans; in ordinary health 

 this fine membrane is never seen, being located beyond ordinary 

 observation within the inner canthus of the e3^e, and only when a 

 foreign substance alights upon the eye is it projected with great 

 rapidity over the anterior surface for its removal; when, however, 

 a horse is the subject of tetanus it frequently protrudes beyond its 

 normal situation and flashes itself more or less frequently within 

 the line of natural observation. The nostrils are very much 

 dilated and the rate of breathing very much accelerated; the pulse 

 and temperature are variously affected, one case exhibiting much 

 greater sensibility than another; when the muscles of the body are 

 affected those of the back will feel rigid and hard, while the tail 

 goes through a continuous series of spasmodic twitchings; the 

 animal stands with his legs much farther apart from one another 



