456 
TETANUS IN A MARE. 
a fear of consequences, while in every case the matter would 
assume the shape of a public and professional question, 
instead of being, what it commonly is now, a private quarrel, 
in which position and capital have the advantage over justice 
and common sense. 
CASE OF TETANUS IN A MARE.—RECOVERY. 
Bv Charles Dickens, M.R.C.V.S., Kimbolton. 
June 14th, 1862, at 7 a.m., John Bolton Hall, Esq., of 
this place—father of my late pupil, J. Hall, now Y.S. to the 
Royal Artillery—requested my immediate attendance on a 
four-year-old thorough-bred mare (“ Vortex”), with a foal by 
her side, and supposed to be about five months advanced in 
pregnancy. 
Symptoms .—I found her standing in the paddock, with 
the hind legs wide apart; or rather reeling, for she had a 
great difficulty in keeping her equilibrium. The surface of 
the body was very cold, tail erect, and the muscles of the head 
and neck rigid. Great tenderness was evinced on passing 
the hand over the loins, but more especially so about the 
head of each femur. The pupils were much dilated; re¬ 
spiration hurried; pulse 80, strong, and possessing such 
a character as, under some circumstances, would have 
indicated the propriety of immediate venesection. The 
rectum was impacted with faeces, and the jaws so fixed that 
the incisors could not be separated. The pupils were dilated ; 
there w T as, however, no protrusion of the membrana nictitans, nor 
did such subsequently come on. The mammary gland had 
a peculiar shrunken appearance, and the lacteal secretion was 
very scanty. 
It was with much difficulty we removed the patient a few 
hundred yards into a roomy box. 
After removing a portion of the faecal matter from the 
rectum, and seeing her comforts attended to, I left her under 
lock and key, that she might not be disturbed, promising 
to return at 9 a.m. An urgent professional call, however, 
delayed my visit, so that I did not see her again until 11 
a.m. 
I found her more tranquil; the surface of the body warmer; 
pulse 76, but improved in character. She still staggered a 
great deal. As she seemed anxious to take some nutriment. 
