ON TETANUS. 
85 
opinions advanced were equally at variance as to the most efficient 
method of treating the disease, these considerations incline me to 
indulge in a little further speculation upon the origin and actual 
seat of the complaint. 
It is but fair that I should confess my theory is not grounded 
so much on minute post mortem examinations, as upon very fre¬ 
quent inspections into the living structure at various stages of te¬ 
tanus, when it has arisen from local injuries : not that I have been 
called in to attend these difficult cases more than others, but I 
think I have had better opportunities of observing the peculiar 
aspect which the structure of the interior of a tetanic wound pre¬ 
sents, because it has been invariably my practice to make deep 
crucial incisions with a scalpel, not only within the wound, but 
also numerous incisions through the sound skin in the vicinity of 
the wound, and sometimes surrounding it in this manner. My 
object has been twofold,—the chance of releasing by lesion some 
peculiarly embarrassed nervous fibril which may have been the 
conductor; but the chief and more ostensible one has been the 
creation of a new action , or rather the return of the vascular ex¬ 
citement in the part injured. And whenever this counter irrita¬ 
tion has been succeeded by a copious counter suppuration, I have 
invariably been gratified by seeing the cases do well; but it would 
be vain to look for such a result in a protracted case from such 
treatment. 
I have also availed myself of several instances of re-docking, 
where tetanus had been caused by the operation ; and have atten¬ 
tively noticed the livid and deadly appearance of the fresh 
exposed stump of the tail at the moment of the secondary ampu¬ 
tation ; but, above all, the loss of energy in the arterial trunks has 
been most apparent, the jets of blood from them wanting that 
vigour which in the healthy adult horse indicate the prompt appli¬ 
cation of the actual cautery, and the blood in the venous trunks 
literally as black as ink. 
Suddenly suppressed suppuration , particularly in punctured 
wounds of the foot, I have frequently observed precede tetanic 
symptoms ; the injured structure of this part assumes a most pe¬ 
culiar appearance under such circumstances. Wounded, abraded, 
or exposed fascia is the tissue most productive of this disease in 
horses; but I believe that all wounded structures which, from 
their organization, are slow in suppurating, or from the tenseness 
of their fibres confine pus below or between them, from their 
pressure become equally susceptible. In short, an injury of any 
organized part which, either from the compactness of its texture 
or the confinement of situation, it is denied the power to swell, 
VOL. V. N 
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