TETANY ; OR, REFLEX NERVOUS IRRITATION. 
843 
Tetany is a condition peculiar to young animals, and but 
seldom seen in old horses. When seen in old animals it will be 
likely to puzzle the ablest practitioner to locate the cause. If 
the veterinary practitioner will keep in mind the fact that ner¬ 
vous irritation is the cause of many conditions which are hard to 
diagnose correctly, he will bring credit to himself by curing the 
obscure conditions which other doctors have failed to remove. 
The irritating cause is often quite distant from the part affected, 
and may be the last place the doctor would think of looking for 
the cause. I have devoted some time to the study of this con¬ 
dition, and have made close observation for several years, es¬ 
pecially in diseases of the eyes. 
Veterinarians have made sport of me when I told them that 
nine cases out of ten, where the eyes were affected in young 
horses, was due to reflex nervous irritation, the cause generally 
being the teeth. 
Some of those doctors have been converted, and have told 
me that I was right, that they had been trying to cure ophthal¬ 
mia without success, and then their patients had been placed 
under my care and I had treated them with a pair of forceps and 
sent them home cured without using any medicine, and they 
could not afford to lose their reputation and practice in that 
way. I have had men bring horses many miles to me, saying 
that they had heard that I was an eye specialist, and they had 
tried Dr. so-and-so, but he could do the horse’s eyes no good, 
and they would leave the horse with me if I thought I could 
help his eyes. I generally let the owner take the horse home 
with him, as it is only another case that Dr. so-and-so had been 
treating for ophthalmia when he ought to have been treating 
the teeth with a pair of forceps or a gum lance. 
In June, 1893, I was called to see a horse belonging to an 
old horse doctor, a man who had practiced for over thirty years. 
I found the horse in a box stall, almost unable to move, with 
back arched, hind legs wide apart and the picture of misery. I 
think any doctor would have said from the looks of the horse, 
that it was a very bad case of nephritis. I took the pulse and 
