191 
©ommun(cattbng anH ©asc^. 
‘‘ I have not willingly, wittingly, or wilfully shut the door against any 
worthy person, nor shall my prejudice (the porter in this kind) exclude any 
out of my book, who bring merit for their admission /^—Fullers Worthies, 
- ♦- 
TRAUMATIC TETANUS. 
IN the month of October, 1827, a tall bay horse, 7 years old, 
belonging to the Enniskillen Dragoons, was successfully treated 
by me for lameness of the near fore foot, which appeared to 
consist in chronic inflammation of the laminae. 
On the 5th of November following, the animal having been 
then two or three weeks at his duty, as the dragoon whose 
horse he was, was leading him from the riding-school ' to the 
stable, he made a sudden gambol and broke away, rushing down 
a little descent into the stable-yard with such violence and 
heedlessness that he precipitated himself upon his head, and 
bruised and cut both knees severely. I saw him the day after¬ 
wards, found the skin lacerated and divided transversely for the 
space of two inches in extent, in both knees, exposing to view 
two gaping wounds, the annular ligament much discoloured and 
abraded, but nowhere penetrated, and the surface yielding a 
bloody serous issue : by fomentations, poultices, cooling lotions^ 
and purges, the consequent inflammation was kept down, and 
the animal, after an interval of three weeks, again restored to 
soundness and on the eve of returning to duty, when— 
On making my visit, as usual, on the 4th of December, a pe¬ 
riod at which the wound was considered sufficiently healed for 
duty, (although a small place in the middle was still bare of 
cuticle,) the farrier-major accosted me by saying, You are 
come very opportunely. Sir; the broken-kneed horse, I am ap¬ 
prehensive, has got locked jaw: I have but this moment been 
called by the man to come and look at him.^’ This was about 
four o’clock p. m. The stable being dark, I ordered the man to 
lead his horse out. The instant he approached the' door, his 
dreadful condition became too manifest to admit of a doubt, 
although the disease could only be said to be then beginning.. 
His neck was stiffened; his head was raised and protruded; 
his eye bore the peculiarly ghastly aspect it assumes in tetanus. 
