TETANUS AND ACONITE. 
471 
of a pail, or on a little fresh grass, which was pushed into 
her mouth at the interdental space. I may mention that 
a week after I first saw her I had her slung, as I considered 
she would soon go down through sheer weakness. Just a 
fortnight after my first visit the power of deglutition began 
to return ; eating and drinking were soon performed with com- 
parative ease, but extreme weakness prevailed. The aconite 
was now discontinued, and about the end of the third week 
I commenced a course of arsenic — five grains morning and 
evening for the first three days, after which I ordered the 
same three times daily in bran mash. About a week subse- 
quently I took the mare out of the slings, after being six 
weeks slung. 
I may just mention that the only medicine forcibly admi- 
nistered in this case was the laxative at the commencement, all 
the rest was either sucked up by the patient herself, or pushed 
into her mouth an inch or two, and subsequently disposed of 
by herself. The irritation attending the operation of forcibly 
drenching a tetanic patient is very antagonistic to the abate- 
ment of the symptoms, so that if at all possible, as Mr. 
Andrew Simpson observes, let the patient take the medicine 
per se. If this cannot be accomplished, I fear the case is 
rather a hopeless one. 
It seems that authorities differ as to whether idiopathic or 
traumatic tetanus is the most virulent and fatal. I confess 
my own opinion to have been that idiopathic tetanus was the 
most tractable and the least deadly ; it would appear, how- 
ever, that Mr. Andrew Simpson's practical experience teaches 
him otherwise, for he finds that where the affection is trau- 
matic , the causative root of the whole matter is quite ob- 
vious and easily grappled with. This is, no doubt, very plau- 
sible, and very self-satisfactory ; medical experience, however, 
and records prove the reverse, and with as good reason, as 
will be seen if we inquire into the several causes of idiopathic 
tetanus, such as exposure alternately to extreme heats and 
colds, the presence of intestinal worms, &c. Any of these 
causes can surely be more easily combated than the extreme 
nervous irritation produced by local lesion of perhaps a trifling 
extent, but yet sufficient to cause tetanic spasms of varying 
degrees of intensity. 
I should much like some of the higher veterinary authori- 
ties to detail their experience of this disease. 
