ANALYSIS OF CONTINENTAL JOURNALS. 851 
the attention of observers should, in my opinion, he seriously 
attracted to the cause of the malady. 
I believe I ought also to give in this place, as a natural 
complement to this work, the detailed history of some facts 
that I have been enabled to gather quite recently with regard 
to the malady in question. 
(To he continued .) 
EXPERIMENTS RELATIVE TO THE PATHOGENESIS OF 
TETANUS. 
By MM. Arloing and Tripier. 
Those who seek to discover, from a chemical point of view, 
the conditions which favour the production of tetanus, arrive 
at very different results ; which seems to indicate that the 
causes that may produce this affection are multiple, or that 
none of them are yet known. But it cannot be denied that 
this disease at times assumes an epidemic character ; it is 
frequently seen in towns, and at all times it is incomparably 
most prevalent in the hospitals. Besides, it is not rare to 
observe it affecting two or three patients occupying the same 
part of a ward; and, finally, we may meet with several 
successive cases of tetanus in one part of a hospital without 
observing a single case in the other parts. 
The existence of that form of tetanus designated spon- 
taneous (idiopathic), although very rare in our country, 
cannot be denied ; the medical journals publish at least one 
or two cases every year. Traumatic tetanus is incomparably 
more frequent, sometimes occurring in the first septenary, at 
other times much later, and when the surgical affection for 
which the patient was admitted to the hospital is partly, if 
not completely, cured. Then we at times learn that a 
window has been left open during the night ; or if we consult 
the state of the temperature, it is found to be cold or warm, 
and the weather damp or dry. 
Tetanus is more particularly frequent as a consequence of 
wounds to the extremities of the limbs, and especially con- 
tused wounds of the fingers and toes ; it is exceptional to see 
this complication after wounds of the head and trunk. 
Most commonly the patients commence to experience pain 
in the region in which the injury is situated. Soon the 
pain extends upwards towards the root of the limb, some- 
times following the anterior part, at other times the posterior 
or lateral portions. This pain, which the patients compare to 
that produced by pricking or burning, comes on by starts, and 
is accompanied by movements of flexion, extension, rotation, 
&c. &c. The affection may limit itself to these symptoms 
