258 
JOSEPH PLASKETT. 
subsides almost as quickly as it appeared, the jaws relax, and in 
the course of two or three hours the animal is eating and is 
apparently as well as ever. 
In regard to the treatment of this malady I might say that 
my efforts in that direction have not been attended with any 
startling degree of success. A line of treatment which I have 
considered efficacious in one case, and which has been followed 
by the recovery of the patient, has proved itself of no value in 
ameliorating the symptoms of the next. Whether the treat¬ 
ment produced the result in the first case, or whether recovery 
took place in spite of the treatment, is still a disputed point 
in my mind. On account of the extreme trismus always present 
oral medication cannot be resorted to, and we have to rely on 
the subcutaneous, intravenous, or rectal methods for the admin¬ 
istration of our drugs. If I reach the patient in the early stages 
of the disease, I have usually resorted to venesection and the . 
abstraction of six or eight quarts of blood from the jugular, as 
the first step in the treatment. Afterwards the hypodermic ad¬ 
ministration of sulphate of morphia, five grains, repeated if nec¬ 
essary after one or two hours, has seemed to give better results 
in my hands than anything else. To quiet the extreme rest¬ 
lessness I have also used fl. ext. cannabis ind. hypodermically, 
with sometimes fair results and sometimes no results at all. 
Eserine and pilocarpine, to relax the muscular spasms, have 
4 
also had a trial at my hands, as has also the intravenous injec¬ 
tion of barium chloride. But none of these have produced the 
results hoped for, and I have come to the conclusion that in 
some cases the physiological effect of any drug or all drugs is 
entirely wanting, whilst in others its administration is followed 
by the happiest results. I have thought for some time that the 
next case I had I would try the effect of producing general 
amesthesia, and see if it would produce any permanent effect 
on the contracted muscles. However, Dr. W. C. Rayen, of this 
city, tells me he once tried it with no beneficial results. The 
best results I have obtained have been from phlebotomy, fol¬ 
lowed by the hypodermic administration of morphia, but my 
