786 LANCASHIRE VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 
irritation sooner than hydrocyanic acid. Whether that drug would 
prove to be the philosopher’s stone with which to cure all cases of 
tetanus he could not say, but he hoped that the discussion that 
evening would be the means of our being able to overcome a dread¬ 
ful foe. 
Mr. Williams , of Bradford, said he had comparatively little to state 
relative to this disease, inasmuch as he had met with poor success. 
With regard to the use of hydrocyanic acid; he had tried that drug 
for other diseases, and he found drachm doses of Scheele’s strength 
produced such violent symptoms that the patient seemed as if it 
were at once going to die, so that they might rest satisfied that 
drachm doses of that medicine had some power in its application to 
tetanus. In most cases of traumatic tetanus cicatrization of the 
wound was nearly completed when the symptoms appeared. It 
was supposed by some that the exciting cause was a neuromatous 
formation on the injured nerve, which had become entangled in the 
dense cicatrix, thereby producing irritation. This morbid condition 
had been found in tetanic cases; these neuromatous formations 
were simply tumours partaking of the nature of fibrous tissue, con¬ 
sisting of dense plastic matter lodged amongst the fibrils of the ner¬ 
vous tissue. The fibrillse were thereby separated, and usually ren¬ 
dered the seat of perverted sensation. Most frequently they 
formed on the truncated extremity of the divided nerve. He 
agreed with Mr. Lawson on one point, viz., that the nerves at, and 
leading from, the injured part showed some sign of increased vas¬ 
cularity and enlargement after the inflammatory process had taken 
place. It was in the nerves of the injured part that that inflamma¬ 
tory change was to be looked for, rather than in the spinal cord; 
for the disease was to be regarded as an example of extreme irrita¬ 
tion of the whole of the true spinal system, induced by inflammatory 
products being lodged in the seat of the injury. There was no 
doubt that inflammation of the cord produced symptoms of a tetanic 
character, though those symptoms were different from tetanus itself. 
Tetanus closed the jaws ; for, according to good authority, tetanus 
included almost every form and variety of this disease, and he was 
of opinion that a wound either in the ischium or ilium was often 
followed by tetanus. It would be well to probe the wound in the local 
treatment of the disease. He was of the same opinion as Mr. Hay¬ 
cock, that there had been no change in the disease, but that any 
apparent modification of it was to be attributed to a change in the 
treatment. 
Mr. Fleming , King’s Own Hussars, was sorry that, like the last 
speaker, he had very little to say with respect to tetanus. He had 
had fourteen cases in eight years, and all the patients died within 
three days of their removal to the stables. The majority of them 
had wounds in the feet caused by marching, whilst five might be 
ascribed to exposure to the weather. He had observed some of 
those cases very narrowly. The extraordinary rapidity with which 
the disease spread left him in doubt altogether as to its pathology. 
He thought the reason why they were unable to form a proper idea 
