EASTERN COUNTIES VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 479 
time afforded for the discussion, which, from the acknowledged 
ability and great experience of many gentlemen present, will, I 
venture to predict, be both profitable and instructive. 
Definition .—Tetanus is derived from a Greek term, which sig¬ 
nifies to stretch, an apt illustration, permit me to remark, of the 
inaccuracy of, and the necessity for a thorough revision of, vete¬ 
rinary nomenclature, inasmuch as the parts affected are in a con¬ 
dition the very antithesis of extension, being, in point of fact, in a 
state of inordinate and persistent contraction, which involves more 
or less both the voluntary and involuntary muscles, and causes 
intense pain, which is aggravated upon the slightest impression 
made on the sentient or aflerent nerves bv violent exacerbations of 
two or three minutes’ duration, followed by partial relaxation of the 
spasm, leaving the muscles in a similar condition as before. 
Tetanus is a disease which attacks animals of every age and 
condition, irrespective of sex, temperament, or clime ; but in the 
human subject' I have reason to believe it occurs more fre¬ 
quently in tropical than in temperate climates, and in the male 
than in the female. M. Hurtel D’Arboval states that the pre¬ 
disposition to tetanus in domesticated animals exists in the fol¬ 
lowing order—1st, the ass; 2nd, the mule; 3rd, the horse; 
4th, the dog; 5th, the sheep; and lastly, the ox. My own ob¬ 
servations do not confirm this statement. Youatt speaks of it as 
very rare in the dog, and adds that in a large canine practice he 
only met with four cases in forty years, two of which recovered 
under bleeding, physic, and the application of a compound ammo- 
niacal embrocation. Blaine also takes this view, and states that 
dogs are so little subject to tetanus that among thousands of 
canine patients he only witnessed three cases, all of which proved 
fatal. Without pronouncing decidedly on this question in the 
absence of sufficient data, I incline to the opinion that the ratio in 
which the disease exists in our patients may be more correctly 
placed thus—1st, the horse; 2nd, the ox; 3rd, the sheep; and 
4th, the dog. 
Classification .—In works by medical writers several varieties of 
tetanus are described; thus, when the disease appears without any 
assignable cause it is termed idiopathic, and when arising from 
injuries it is known as traumatic. Tetanus occasionally assumes a 
local character, confining itself to the muscles of the head and neck, 
and is then recognised as trismus, giving rise to the term locked 
jaw. The most frequent form of tetanus is that in which the head 
is elevated and drawn back, the dorsal vertebrae are slightly concave, 
and the tail partially erect and quivering; this is known as opis¬ 
thotonos ; when the position is reversed, emprosthotonos ; and when 
the body is laterally distorted, or drawn to one side, pleurosthotonos; 
the two latter forms of the disease are, I believe, very rarely if ever 
seen in our patients, and therefore will not require more than a 
passing notice from me. Tetanus may also be either acute or 
chronic (perhaps subacute would be the most correct term) ; the 
former is by far the most formidable, as it is unfortunately the 
