A CASE OF TETANUS. 
143 
but slightly applied are all broken out; the wound is open, but 
looks healthy; granulations of a healthy nature appear at the 
bottom of the wound, the formation of which, I take it, forced 
the sutures from their hold ; continue the digestive ointment to 
the wound, and put three straps of adhesive plaster, half an inch 
broad and four inches long, across the forehead, over the wound. 
May 1st .—Wound looking well; continue the ointment and 
strapping. This treatment was continued until the 4th of May, 
when I left off the dressing, the wound being quite filled up. 
Apply tinct. myrrh morning and evening. The tincture was ap- 
plied until the 13th, before a complete cicatrix was formed, but 
left a scar about the size and shape of an almond. I kept the 
horse in the hospital until the 17th, for it was my custom, 
before discharging them for duty, to retain them three or four 
days after treatment. 
17 tli .—On visiting the horse this morning, and having him 
walked before me several times, he appeared to move rather 
stiff; and on examination I observed the jaw protrude more than 
usual; on examining further, I considered the muscles of the neck 
stiff and rigid, yet not decidedly so. These symptoms led me to 
suspect that tetanus was a near neighbour. I immediately or¬ 
dered the horse to be bled 10 pounds, and gave aloes 3 vj, 
tereb. vul. 31 ij. 
18/7*.—This morning I had the horse removed to a loose box : he 
cannot separate his jaws more than an inch asunder; he attempts 
to eat but cannot. I again particularly examined the head, and 
fancied that on the situation of the wound it was softer; but to so 
trifling a degree that it was mere conjecture in my own mind, know¬ 
ing that newly formed skin could not be so solid and firm as the old; 
however, I was determined to ascertain the fact if possible, sus¬ 
pecting that the injury to the bone had been greater than the 
first symptoms had developed. I had the horse cast, and making 
two oblique incisions downwards, about two inches apart, be¬ 
ginning just under the forelock, I brought them to a point three 
inches down the face. I then detached the skin, going as close 
as possible to the bone upwards from the apex; having laid the 
skin back, it was held in that position by one of the farriers, 
while I proceeded to examine the bone, which I found fractured, 
about an inch in length, just in the centre, on the parietal suture. 
I removed a piece of bone about three parts of an inch long, and, 
what astonished me, the edges of the divided bone appeared to 
rise up, not depress. This rather puzzled me at first, and, indeed, 
it does now; because by the rising of the bone no pressure could 
be on the brain, unless some extravasation had taken place ; but 
as I did not peep into the cranium, I could not ascertain this. 
