441 
TETANIC CONVULSIONS. 
She had been taken about noon into the town by the butler, 
and was attacked in the street while following him. The 
man said, that hearing a noise he looked back, and perceived 
the dog had a difficulty in progressing ; she was partly down, 
and was scratching the pavement with the hind feet in her 
endeavours to walk. She was at once brought home, and a 
messenger despatched for me. 
Symptoms . — I found her lying upon the hearth-rug, each 
limb stretched out, divergent, quite stiff, but jerking and 
trembling. Every muscle, except those of the mouth , was 
affected with tetanic rigidity. Those of the legs were so 
stiff, that when I attempted to flex either the tarsal or carpal 
joints, 1 was quite unable to do so; and the rigidity 
also of the muscles of the sides and lower part of the neck 
quite prevented the dog’s looking at the flanks, which she 
frequently tried to do. The breathing was greatly accelerated, 
loud, and panting. The action of the heart was bounding 
and quick, but the precise number of the pulse could not be 
determined, in consequence of the excessive panting character 
of the breathing, and the violent motion of the costal parietes 
of the chest. Consciousness was unimpaired, the dog being 
alive to every sound and motion, but exhibiting no nervous- 
ness, or start upon being approached, touched, or even 
moved. She seemed peculiarly sensible of sympathy and 
kindness, and appeared to suffer no kind of inconvenience 
from being lifted up. The case was further characterised by 
an intense thirst. The power of deglutition seemed unim- 
paired, for she drank frequently and copiously of cold water, 
with which I had her liberally supplied, and she was able to 
do this although the muscles of the body and neck were so 
rigid as to render it necessary that an assistant should raise her 
bodily up, like a stiff board, to dip her muzzle into the saucer. 
Having seen dogs die from the effect of strychnia, I had 
no difficulty whatever in forming my diagnosis , for when the 
action of this drug has been once witnessed, it would be 
impossible not to recognize the symptoms in every subsequent 
case. My prognosis was, of course, unfavorable, especially as 
the symptoms continued to increase in severity. 
Treatment. — Potassio Tart. Ant., gr. iij, to be given im- 
mediately, in a little water. 
The effect of the emetic was almost instantaneous. With 
the exception, however, of a little frothy fluid, in which no 
particle of the drug could be seen, it brought but little off the 
stomach. I next ordered the dog to be put into a bath, as hot 
as she could bear it. She could not, however, be fully im- 
mersed, and was therefore held in a standing position upon her 
