64 
Communications ana Cases. 
Ars veterinaria post medicinam secunda est.— Vegetius. 
ON TETANUS. 
By Mr. Alex. Henderson, Veterinary Surgeon to the Queen. 
[Read at the Veterinary Medical Society, January the 4th, 1832.] 
My time has been so much occupied since I selected the sub¬ 
ject to be discussed this evening, that I fear I shall not be able to 
do it that j ustice I could wish. I shall waive all preface, and re¬ 
quest your attention to a few cases of Tetanus that have come 
under my notice. 
I will not detain you by describing the symptoms; you are all 
well enough acquainted with them, and, indeed, a case of tetanus, 
if seen once, can never be mistaken; but I wish that I could say 
something satisfactory of its nature and cause, or of any means 
that can be depended upon for its cure. 
We know that every now and then a horse labouring under te¬ 
tanus does get well, and are sanguine enough to think the treat¬ 
ment observed in this case may be as fortunate with the next, but 
we are generally wofully disappointed. This will go far to account 
for the various remedies employed by different practitioners at dif¬ 
ferent times, and each in a case or two, perhaps, attended with 
success, and then again in a most unaccountable way failing: for 
this reason I conceive it to be a most difficult task to form a con¬ 
clusion as to the best method of treatment we are to pursue. 
Tetanus is said to be idiopathic and sympathetic. That it may 
be frequently idiopathic in the human subject I have no doubt, as 
the mind of a human being is susceptible of impressions which an 
inferior animal must be a stranger to ; but I doubt very much whe¬ 
ther the horse ever has the disease except from sympathy, and I 
think I am borne out in that opinion from post mortem examina¬ 
tions which have come under my notice. Although in many cases 
there have been no external symptoms apparent to lead me to 
account for the disease, on examination after death I have found 
appearances which left no doubt in my mind on the subject, al¬ 
though I might be at first tempted to consider the case to be idio¬ 
pathic. I console myself, however, for having mistaken the sym¬ 
pathetic for idiopathic by the consideration that the sole means 
we have of ascertaining the presence of any internal derangement 
is by external signs, which we are not always present to observe, 
