390 n CLAUDE D. MORRIS. 
As to symptoms, diagnosis, and other details of the same, 
I consider it unnecessary to delineate before such a body as 
this, as all present are conversant with the symptoms of teta¬ 
nus; there is only one thing, however, I would enjoin—that 
is, a too hasty diagnosis may result in a little embarrassment, 
as the writer has been twice deceived upon the first and a 
hasty diagnosis. In this case it was in a five-year-old mare 
used for road purposes; she had gone lame three or four 
days previous. The owner sent the stable boy to the drug 
store to procure a pound of flaxseed. He having other shop¬ 
ping to do, returned soon to the store and took what he sup¬ 
posed to be his package. On arriving at the stable he made 
the necessary preparations to putting the lame foot in a 
poultice. In so doing he offered the animal a handful of 
his flaxseed, which, he says, she seemed to eat with delight. 
The poultice was applied. At eleven o’clock I was called to 
see the animal. She at that time was standing in a box tied 
in opposite directions, right fore foot pointing in a neatly 
prepared poultice, head and tail extended, saliva and froth 
issuing from the lips, which were closed, ears erect and stiff, 
body rigid and in convulsions, and in a slight perspiration. 
Upon raising the head and slightly tapping the neck I noticed 
that the membrane nictitans did not move over the orbit, as 
is so constant in tetanus. Yet in the absence of that symp¬ 
tom I felt justified in my diagnosis. The only history I could 
get of the case is that already stated. Ordered poultice re* 
moved and parts washed, as I wished to examine the foot. 
At this point in the proceeding I was able to find the cause 
of these tetanic convulsions. 
The poultice was made of po. nux vomica instead of 
ground flaxseed, and the quantity the animal had eaten was 
about § ij. In citing this case it is for the purpose of show¬ 
ing the physiological effect of this drug on the nervous cen¬ 
tres and upon certain muscular groups. As in tetanus, we 
get like symptoms produced by the physiological effect of 
the bacillus, that is, the product of the bacillus, what they 
are capable of throwing off, and certain other peculiar sub¬ 
stances (resembling alkaloids) which are produced during the 
process of putrefaction of the dead ones in the system. 
