ON TETANUS. 
372 
The spasmodic action is dreadful as well as universal in this 
poor animal. The dog lies generally on his side, his neck and 
his legs stretched out, and the upper legs kept some inches 
from the ground by the intensity of the spasm. He is literally 
a fixture. He may be taken up by either leg, and not a portion 
of the frame changes its direction. At the same time, in his 
countenance, and by his hoarse cries, he indicates the tortures 
which he endures. 
TETANUS. 
By Professor Vatel. 
The nervous symptoms known under the name of tetanus 
consist in spasmodic and permanent contractions of the muscular 
system, and particularly of the extensor muscles. The horse and 
the lamb are most exposed to the attack of this disease. 
The contractions attack, at first, the muscles of one region 
alone ; and they proceed from one to another until they become 
general, and frequently terminate in death. 
The muscles of the jaw are often the first affected (trismus) ; 
at other times the neck, the trunk, and the limbs (opisthotonos); 
the animal is then unable to walk, he becomes altogether stiff, 
and he, at length, falls like a piece of board, and is unable to 
rise again. 
Tetanus, in the majority of cases, depends on a nervous irri¬ 
tation—often an inflammatory one—of the substance of the spi¬ 
nal cord. 
The principal causes of tetanus are, the action of cold and wet, 
especially when the animal is in a state of perspiration—metas- 
tases of inflammation—inflammatory irritation of the digestive 
canal, or the simple nervous irritation produced by the presence 
of worms or foreign bodies; irritation produced by wounds (trau¬ 
matic tetanus), especially those produced by nails, or following 
painful operations, and particularly castration. 
Many means have been tried by which to combat this cruel 
malady: bleeding, warm, hot, and cold baths for smaller ani¬ 
mals ; warm, hot, and cold affusions, and immersion in hot 
steam, for larger ones : all the most powerful antispasmodics, 
vermifuges, sudorifics, and especially ammonia, narcotics, and 
particularly opium. Among these agents, bleeding, warm baths, 
lotions, and affusions; ammonia mixed w'ith water, as drinks, 
or mixed with oil, as frictions; the carbonate of potash dis¬ 
solved in water, as an injection, or applied externally by means 
of compresses, and, finally, opium, arc those that have been 
