EASTERN COUNTIES VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION, 485 
have informed him that they have been very successful in the treat¬ 
ment of tetanus since adopting this remedy. 
Having thus briefly reviewed the different modes by which vete¬ 
rinary surgeons of our day have attempted the cure of tetanic 
patients, with their attendant results, I now propose to offer a few 
observations on the pathology of the disease, with a view to arrive 
at sound and rational conclusions as to its treatment. 
In my opinion tetanus is to be regarded as essentially a derange¬ 
ment of nerve-force, and not a structural disease of nerve-tissue. It 
is strictly functional not organic in its nature, having its seat in the 
medulla oblongata and spinal cord, from which all the nerves of 
voluntary motion arise. We have no warrant for believing that the 
cerebrum or brain proper is involved, as coma, furore, or insensi¬ 
bility, is never present; but, on the contrary, it is one of the chief 
characteristics of this disease, that sensibility is retained to the last. 
Nor are we to regard it as of an inflammatory character, for although 
it is admitted that in some instances increased vascularity and 
traces of inflammatory action have been recognised, yet it is equally 
certain that in others careful investigations have failed to discover 
the remotest evidence of its existence, either in the thoracic or ab¬ 
dominal viscera, the nerves, or spinal cord; and therefore, as these 
morbid changes of structure are by no means constantly, or even 
frequently present, they are to be considered as incidental accom¬ 
paniments of the disease. Opinions are divided as to whether the 
sympathetic system is affected. Beyond all doubt the involuntary 
order of muscular fibre participates, as shown in the difficulty of 
deglutition and respiration, the torpidity of the bowels, and the 
increase of the heart’s action during the paroxysms ; but this is not 
conclusive, as these phenomena may admit of another explanation. 
The cerebro-spinal and sympathetic systems are known to interchange 
fibres ; and it is owing to this fact that the vermicular motion of the 
arteries and the peristaltic action of the bowels is maintained, and 
also that we are able to take cognizance of pain when disease has 
invaded those parts. May not the torpidity of the bowels and the 
difficulty of swallowing be due to a disturbance of nerve-force and 
its diminished supply to the alimentary canal, the dyspnoea being 
caused by spasm of the respiratory muscles and the increase of the 
heart’s action by pain? 
To fully pursue this subject would far exceed the limits of my 
paper. I will therefore only add (in the language of Druitt) that 
tetanic spasm is to the motor system what nervous pain is to the 
sentient, and delirium to the intellectual; they are all functional 
disorders of the nervous system, having many points in common ; 
they may all be symptomatic of the most varied states of local 
disease; they may all be caused by a variety of morbific agents, as 
cold, mechanical injury, sympathetic disorder, and poisons. And, 
lastly, they all seem to be fatal in the ratio in which they interfere 
with the actions of life, or exhaust the vital powers. 
A brief consideration of the pathognomonic symptoms of the 
disease can scarcely fail to correctly indicate the treatment to be 
