484 NORTH OF ENGLAND VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 
The circulation is, in most instances, at first not much 
disturbed; but as the disease increases, the pulse quickens 
and becomes tremulous and irregular; the respiration also 
gradually becomes hurried and intermittent. In this state 
the suffering animal may live a few days when, worn out by 
irritation and inanition, he expires in convulsions. 
Morbid anatomy has hitherto thrown very little light on 
the pathology of tetanus. In some cases there have been 
appearances of inflammation within the cerebral cavity and 
spinal canal, also in the lungs, stomach, and intestines, as 
well as other morbid phenonema, which seem to have been 
merely effects or incidental accompaniments of the disease. 
In many cases the injured nerve of a wound has been found 
thickened and inflamed, whilst in others nothing of the kind 
could be detected. 
I have found the lungs, liver, and stomach, highly inflamed 
in patches, and evidences of the same action having seized 
the intestines. Worms have been found in different portions 
of the alimentary canal, but they have also been found in 
many other morbid cases besides that which we are now con¬ 
sidering. 
Tetanus appears to be purely a nervous affection, involving 
principally the motor, cerebral, and spinal, and subordinately 
the ganglionic system. Upon taking a survey of the entire 
nosology of hippopathology, I know of no disease where so 
much discrepancy of opinion exists among veterinary prac¬ 
titioners ; nevertheless, in order to combat this most for¬ 
midable disorder, the treatment should be prompt, bold, 
energetic, and continued. 
Accumulated successful facts warrant the free use of the 
lancet, strong cathartics, powerful sedatives, severe blistering 
of the nervous centres, warm clothing, pure air, liberal sup¬ 
port, and quiet seclusion. 
But, gentlemen, without enumerating in detail the various 
agents which have been more or less successfully, or other¬ 
wise, adopted by veterinarians, I will confine myself to a brief 
outline of the history of a few cases from amongst many others, 
which I have had specially under my care and treatment. 
1st. Of a traumatic character , in a gelding, three years old. 
About the sixth day after being docked he was observed by his 
owner to be somewhat stiff, and on the following, when 
attempting to move him backwards in his stall, having lost 
his balance, he fell. On the eighth day I was called, and on 
entering the stable at once perceived that the well-marked 
symptoms of tetanic rigors were in full play on the poor 
suffering animal, the jaws being nearly closed. 
The treatment pursued was first to amputate the tail afresh. 
