TETANUS. 
183 
have chorea. If it is universal, and the suspensions lengthened, 
yet the expenditure of animal power increased, w^e have epilepsy; 
and if the supply is altogether suspended, we palsy. 
Farther Illustration. —These diseases are all connected to¬ 
gether—they have a tendency to run into each other. Chorea 
in the dog is a frequent precursor of fits. The spasmodic affec¬ 
tion of one limb is speedily propagated to the neighbouring ones, 
and gradually involves the whole frame. Fits either become 
less frequent and violent, and terminate in chorea; or they in¬ 
crease in the rapidity with which they succeed to each other, 
and the vital powder is at length nearly or quite expended, and 
partial or total palsy succeeds. 
Theory of Tetanus. —The disease which will occupy our atten¬ 
tion this evening is tetanus, or,as it iscommonly called, lock ed- 
jAw ; and so termed, because the forcible closing of the mouth 
is one of the earliest and most prominent, although not the in¬ 
variable, symptom of tetanus. It is constant spasm of the vo¬ 
luntary muscles, and particularly those of tiie jaw% the neck, and 
the spine. The old farriers used to call it Stag Evil f whether 
from its being supposed, but I think erroneously, to be a disease 
to which the stag is very subject,—or from the vvell-knowm fact, 
that when the stag is nearly hunted dow n he takes refuge, if he 
can, in some pond of water, where he stands at bay, and from which 
he is said to become stiff and tetanic, from the sudden effect of 
the cold,—or whether because the tetanic horse carries his head 
in somewhat the same manner that a stag usually does—I will 
not now inquire. 
Symptoms. —Its approach is usually slow and insidious—at 
least it is so in the estimation and observation of the groom. 
The horse is dull—unwilling to move—he does not feed w’ell 
—he quids his hay and gulps his water. The groom attributes 
all this to sore throat; and when he begins to be alarmed by its 
continuance, and by the rapid manner in which the horse loses 
flesh, even from the very beginning, he sends for the veterinary 
surgeon. The mischief is all done now, nine tin:ies out often. 
Caution as to supposed Sore Throat. —The veterinary surgeon 
will never examine, or ought never to examine, a horse with 
supposed sore throat, without ascertaining the state of the 
muscles of the jaw : and yet 1 do recollect one; he w as a young 
practitioner—so you may suppose ; but he was a clever young 
man notwithstanding,—who saw the quidding and the gulp¬ 
ing, and the difficulty of opening the mouth, but was bam¬ 
boozled by w hat the groom forced upon him of the soreness of 
the throat, and the foulness of the breath, and the enlargement 
of the parotid glands,—and lost for ever the golden opportunity. 
Let this be a rule with you—one without exception—in every 
