368 
CASE OK IDIOPATHIC TETANUS. 
29th .—No worse ; pulse 42 : can eat a little hay and part of* a 
mash; draught repeated by means of a syringe, after which the 
mare appeared much agitated. Aloes 3iv were given with gruel as 
an enema, and gruel administered during the day. 
Evening . —The faeces are soft, and the mare sucks a little mash; 
warm clothing was ordered, and a blister on the spine. 
30th .—The mare was found this morninglying on her near side, 
breathing laboriously, struggling excessively, and apparently suf¬ 
fering a great degree of pain. Eight men endeavoured to get her 
up, but in vain, as she could not render them the slightest 
assistance, being unable to bend her hinder extremities, and the 
muscles of her neck being quite rigid. Pulse 62. I opened the 
temporal artery, and about eight quarts of blood escaped, but 
without the least relief. The jaws were completely set, so that 
no medicine could be administered, and the mare lay groaning, 
sweating, and struggling, during the day, and in the evening, 
getting no better, and there appearing not the least chance of re¬ 
covery, she was destroyed. 
/ 
Post-mortem Examination. 
My attention was first called to the serratus magnus muscle of 
the near side, which was found in a state approaching to gan¬ 
grene. This I suppose must have been occasioned by the mare 
having lain on her side for twelve or fourteen hours before death, 
although certainly this cause does not appear equal to the effect 
produced. The lungs were inflamed, particularly the left lobe. The 
heart was unusually soft and pale. The diaphragm very exten¬ 
sively inflamed. The liver completely mortified; and the kidneys 
in a state of suppuration. The stomach was nearly empty, and 
contained a few bots and other worms. The large intestines were 
filled with soft black faeces, and were inflamed in patches. The 
brain, I thought, was softer than common: its meninges were veiy 
vascular, and some bloodvessels were perceptible in its medullary 
portion. 
The above case of tetanus, I consider, was caused by exposure 
to cold, which, in the latter part of January, was most intense. 
The mare was turned out with two other horses for a winter’s 
run, and was not taken in, although the snow was on the ground. 
I believe that her companions would not permit her to come un¬ 
der shelter; and a thaw having commenced, she was exposed, for 
a considerable time, to the droppings from the thatch on her 
hinder parts. 
