366 MR. YOUATl’s VETERINARY LECTURES. 
in shoeing?—stubbed in travelling? If you find that he has, 
examine the wound. It may be a very trifling one compared with 
the dreadful effect produced. Examine it closely; it will have a 
peculiar unhealthiness about it—a iifelessness—a bloodlessness ; 
if you cut into it there is but a little jet of arterial blood ; and the 
venous blood is doubly black. The ganglionic nerves have evi¬ 
dently sympathized with the affection of those derived from the 
spinal chord. Is it in the foot? remove from around the wound 
every portion of horn that is separated, and freely expose the 
whole surface to the action of the chloride of antimony. If I 
had rendered myself quite assured that I had found the focus of 
mischief, I should not be satisfied with this; but if my patient 
was a valuable horse, and a draught horse, I should perform the 
operation of neurotomy. I might not be able at first, much, or 
at all, to lessen the force of the tetanic spasm; but I should, at all 
events, cut off the enemy’s supplies, and that is a matter of no little 
consequence. If I detected a wound in any other part that, 
from the time at which it was inflicted, and, more particularly, 
from its appearance, raised my suspicion, I would apply the 
caustic or the cautery severely and eftectually to it, and, if prac¬ 
ticable, divide the nerve which goes to it. Mr. Brodie has some 
valuable observations on this in one of his lectures delivered at 
the College of Surgeons, in 1822; and which, although in some 
measure contrary to what I have been recommending, I feel my¬ 
self bound to quote:—He seldom found that a division of the 
nerve between the seat of injury and the brain had the slightest 
effect in abating the spasm; and that, on the contrary, neuro¬ 
tomy had occasioned an aggravation of the symptoms, and even 
amputation had been resorted to with equivocal advantage; 
but that the destruction of the injured portion of the nerve was 
found to he in the highest degree beneficial. 
If tetanus seemed to arise from nicking, the incision should 
be deepened, and freely exposed to the caustic or cautery; if 
from docking, another joint should be taken from the stump; if 
from castration, the cord should be examined ; the clams, if pos¬ 
sible, applied afresh; the original cauterized surface removed, 
and the cautery applied anew. If the progress towards healing 
should render this impracticable, the nitric acid should be freely 
applied over the whole of the sore surface. 
Justification of these Measures. —Whatever was the cause of 
the disease, it is now become a constitutional affair. However 
produced, the irritation is now general; the habit is formed, and 
it is not easily broken ; and, therefore, the removal of the local 
cause will not be alwavs or often successful. Still it is worth 
trying. A man had been bitten by a rabid wolf; the part was 
excised; the proper precautionary measures were taken, and he 
