TETANUS. 193 
further apart, the contractions diminish, the respiration is easier. 
During summer one should see that the animal does not suffer from 
excessive heat ; in winter, he should be sufficiently covered to keep the 
skin slightly moist; if perspiration is too abundant, blankets must be 
changed. In severe cases, where there is danger of falling, slings are 
advantageous. 
The patient should be sustained with substantial food. It should 
receive liquid food especially (mashes, farinaceous drinks, hay tea, 
milk, soup), grass and cool water at will. If trismus and dysphagy do 
not allow the swallowing of these substances, nutritive rectal injections 
should be given four or five times a day. It is sometimes necessary 
either to empty the rectum, or to help micturition, by pressing upon 
the bladder through the rectum, or by the introduction of the catheter. 
Besides this, injections of serum shall always be indicated to destroy 
the toxine which still penetrates in the blood. As medications, 
one should employ agents which can be used with food, drinks, 
or lavements, or in hypodermic injections (purgatives, alkalines, 
antiseptics, chlorhydric acid, iodine, morphine, chloral). The admin- 
istration of drenches is sometimes impossible on account of the 
trismus ; for us, these are always forbidden on account of the excite- 
ment they give rise to, the danger of their passing in wrong directions, 
and the severe complications following. One may, by giving daily 
100 or 200 grammes of sulphate of soda in drinks, prevent constipation, 
and 2 to 6 grammes of aqueous extract of belladonna, or opium, will 
quiet the nervous irritation (Trasbot). In acute cases the hyperexcit- 
ability should be controlled with chloral, administered by injections 
through the rectum, and morphine in small doses by hypodermic in- 
jections. 
13 i 
