29. 
should at once be placed in a well-ventilated loose box, with plenty of straw 
in it, and the diet should be restricted in amount, and of a light digestible. 
kind for the first few days. Recovery is generally the reward of judicious , 
treatment, good management, and careful attention, 
LOCK-JAW OR TETANUS. 
THERE is no disease to which the horse is subject which is so much and 
so justly dreaded as is lock-jaw or tetanus, a malady to which the horse and 
sheep, of our domesticated animals, are the most liable, 
Lock-jaw is a grave malady, characterised by continued spasms, 
not only of the muscles which are under the control of the will, such as, for 
example, those of the. limbs, but to some extent also.of the other muscles... 
These spasms are painful, and from time to time they become more severe 
and are then followed by intervals of repose.. 
In most instances, lock-jaw arises in connection with some wound or 
injury, though sometimes it occurs without any apparent cause whatever. 
When traceable to an injury it is spoken of as traumatic, When it arises 
without apparent cause it is termed idiopathic. We must remember that 
the liability to traumatic tetanus in no way depends upon the severity of the 
injury, as it not unfrequently follows very slight wounds, It is most likely to: 
follow either punctures or lacerated wounds. Although it has been said by 
some that lock-jaw is rarely due to wounds of the feet, this is, nevertheless, 
most certainly an unwarrantable assertion ; for very many cases of tetanus 
under our care have been due to injury of this most wonderfully constructed 
mechanism. Wounds of the thighs, feet, quarters, and forearm are 
especially liable to be followed by lock-jaw, and this is more particularly the 
case when the nerves are injured. In a case in which a piece of straw was. 
embedded in one of the main nerves of the limb, the late Mr. D. Gresswell 
found this structure to be in a highly congested condition for some distance. 
from the point of injury. Wounds, in parts which are the most tense, and 
in structures, bound together by unyielding tissues, are more’ frequently 
followed by lock-jaw than injuries in the laxer tissues. Injuries of the joints 
although frequently inducing a high state of fever, are neyertheless not often 
followed by tetanus. The operations after which this disease most 
commonly supervenes are docking and castration. In some instances the 
insertion of setons has been followed by an attack. When tetanus succeeds 
docking, this operation has in almost all instances been unskilfully or 
unadvisedly performed under unfavourable conditions, as, for instance, when 
the animal was in a weakened and debilitated condition, or when after the 
operation the horse has been confined in damp or draughty stables, and has 
probably been ill cared for in other respects also. The authors have, 
moreover, noticed that when docking is performed by means of a blunt 
instrument in an unskilful manner, tetanus is very liable ‘to follow. When 
docking has been judiciously performed, we have never known it followed 
by tetanus. 
