ON CHLOROFORM IN TETANUS. 
703 
be honest. We may differ from him—widely differ in opinion 
with him ; and such difference or “ discrepancy” may surprise— 
may even disgust, if they like—a jury of unprofessional persons. 
Still, his evidence is honest, and so is our own. He may be right, 
or we may be right. It may be difficult or impossible for judge 
and jury to decide when doctors differ or disagree. But that we 
cannot help. The fault lies with the imperfection of our science; 
not at our door. This is a kind of “ discrepancy” which we may 
call natural or unavoidable ; very different from that which happens 
between one veterinary witness who knows his business and ano¬ 
ther whose knowledge is defective, or who pretends to a knowledge 
of what he is in reality profoundly ignorant. It is this last kind of 
“ discrepancy of opinion” to which, we take it for granted, Mr. 
Gregory more particularly alludes, when he writes “ as to the 
cause and effect of disease.” But, when conflicting evidence hap¬ 
pens to come on either side from diplomaed veterinary surgeons, 
although the cause of the discrepancy may be manifest, still, so 
long as judge and jury are unable to distinguish between a weil- 
informed medical witness and one who is not, how is such discre¬ 
pancy to be guarded against ? 
We shall probably return to this interesting subject in our next. 
There are recorded in our present Number no less than four 
cases of Tetanus in which chloroform was experimentally exhi¬ 
bited : three by our practical friend who chooses to write under 
the sobriquet of “ Caustic”—albeit his nature appears to us any¬ 
thing else but caustic; and one by Mr. J. K. Lord. By “ Caustic” 
the medicine was, in two cases out of the three, administered by the 
mouth; and in the one in which a sponge wetted with the anaes¬ 
thetic agent was applied to the nostrils, this not being done until 
chloroform had been given internally, it could be considered only 
as adjunctive to the operation of the medicine introduced into the 
stomach. This creates a difficulty when we come to draw infer¬ 
ences from the case, which we feel the more desirous of doing, as 
being a cured one; and what adds to this difficulty is, the circum¬ 
stance of the chloroform having been administered in conjunction 
with ether and opium, two agents of themselves, as potent anti- 
spasmodics, of considerable efficacy in tetanic affections. Not¬ 
withstanding our scruples, however, to come to any random or 
