Vetekinarian. 
VOL. YllI, No. 88.] APRIL 1835. [New Series, No. 28- 
MR. YOUATT’S V ET E R I N A R Y L E CT U R E S, 
DELIVERED AT THE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON. 
LECTURE XLVII. 
Tetanus .— Theory of the Communication of Nervous Influence .— 
Symptoms of Tetanus.—Progress of the Disease. — Post¬ 
mortem Appearances. 
Sketch of the Nervous System. —I HAVE described the spinal 
chord as divided by a rnesian line through its whole extent; 
and each side again divisible into three columns, and each of 
these devoted to a distinct and separate function. The central 
columns on the inferior surface (the anterior one in the human 
being) are connected with voluntary motion—the central columns 
on the superior (posterior) surface, with sensation, and the 
lateral column on either side with the movements and peculiar 
sensibility of organic life. The first two we have traced to the 
brain : the mandate of the will or the nervous influence is con¬ 
veyed by the inferior columns from the brain to the various 
organs of voluntary motion, and so we move and act amidst the 
objects that surround us. The impressions that are made on the 
extreme fibrils of other nerves are conveyed to the common sen- 
sorium by means of the superior columns, and thus we fiave 
sensation, pleasurable or painful. The lateral column, however, is 
a system of itself, and not of cerebral origin; connected with, 
influenced by, and influencing, aiding, and assisting, the other 
two, as its very situation would lead us to suspect j but indepen¬ 
dent of both : possessing properties similar to both, yet devoted 
to the functions of organic life. 
There are certain classes of diseases principally referrible to 
one or the other of these columns. I will consider each in the 
order in which I have mentioned them. 
1 begin with those of the central column of the inferior surface 
and connected with voluntary motion. 
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