807 
PATHOLOGY. 
is therefore highly neceflary to purge the patient as foon 
as the difeafe has made its attack. Should trifirms be fo 
great that the opening of the jaws is prevented, one or 
more teeth mull be drawn, arid purges conveyed by means 
of the eladic catheter and fyringe into the ftomach in 
large and repeated quantities; at the fame time clyfters 
mull be given. Men of the bed experience recommend 
falivating the fyftera, as early as poflible, with mercury ; 
and confequently direft us to give calomel by the 
mouth, and rub mercury-ointment along the courfe of 
the fpine and other parts, with a view to induce falivation ; 
and this has often had a good effeft. Opium is a very 
ufeful remedy ; it allays the irritation of the nervous 
fyllem in an extraordinary degree; and, though we have 
beard much of the Jiimulating effeft of opium, we cannot 
but view it as direftly fcdative as far as regards the fpinal 
marrow and medulla oblongata, notwithstanding it may 
have a ftimulating influence on thofe fuperior por¬ 
tions which are confidered by mod philofophers to be 
the indruments of the mental operations. At all 
events, experience decidedly favours the u'fe of opium 
ia alleviating, if not in curing, tetanus. It mud be 
given in large dofes: from one drachm to half an ounce 
of laudanum may be prefcribed according to circum- 
ftances; always providing that its operation be clofely 
watched, and its repetition regulated by its effefts. 
We pafs over a variety of drugs which have obtained 
a name for the cure of tetanus, becaufe the cafes related 
of their efficacy are fo few as to warrant us in fuppofing 
them fpontaneoully cured. Reafoning from the fedative 
effeft which the rubbing of belladonna on the forehead 
Ins upon the eye, we would fugged that this ineafure 
might be tried with advantage along the courfe of the 
fpine for the relief of tetanus. Its internal exhibition 
might likewife be ufefully reforted to. 
The ufe of bliders has not been attended with much * 
fuccefis in this difeafe. They are ufeful adjunfts applied 
along the fpine. As fliowing in a drong light the good 
effefts of counter-irritation in this difeafe, we dial! pro¬ 
bably be pardoned by our readers for prefen ting the fol¬ 
lowing account of a barbarous remedy ufed in the Tonga 
i(lands. The inhabitants of thefe places adopt a remedy 
which they borrowed of thofe of the Fiji i(lands. It con- 
fids in the operation of toculbji, or paffing a reed fird wet¬ 
ted with faliva into the urethra, fo as to occafion a con- 
fiderable irritation and difcharge of blood; and, if the 
general fpafm is very violent, they make a feton of this 
paffage, by paffing down a double thread, looped over 
the end of the reed ; and, when it is felt in the perinasuin, 
they cut down upon it, feize hold of the thread, and 
■withdraw the reed, fo that the two ends of the thread 
Jiang from the orifice of the urethra, and the doubled 
part from the artificial opening in the perintcuin ; the 
thread is occafionaliy drawn backwards and forwards, 
which excites very great pain and abundant difcharge of 
blood. The latteroperation Me, Mariner faw performed 
ieveral times ; but only twice for tetanus, arifing in both 
Inftances from wounds in the foot; in thefe cafes the 
fpafms, but particularly the convulfive paroxyfms, were 
exceedingly violent, extending to the whole body, neck, 
face, trunk, and extremities ; but in neither cafe was the 
jaw permanently locked, though on every cafe it was vio¬ 
lently clofed fora few feconds. In both cafes the difeafe 
came on fuddenly, three or four days after the wound was 
received, which was from an arrow not barbed. The 
moment the fymptoms became evident, tocolofi was per¬ 
formed, In the (hort fpace of two hours, one of them 
was greatly relieved, and the other in about fix or eight 
hours. The following day, the one was quite well, and 
afterwards had no other attack ; confequently the thread 
was withdrawn : but the other, on the fecond day,- was 
not quite free from fpafmodic fymptoms; and, a parox- 
_yfm coming on, the feton was moved frequently, which 
in two or three hours gave him great relief, and he after¬ 
wards had no other attack; it was thought prudent, 
however, to keep in the feton till the fourth or fifth day, 
ypL.xrx, No. 1305. 
when it was withdrawn. The effeft of this operation 
was a confiderable pain fend tumefaction of the penis, but 
which gradually Cubfided in about five or fix days. The 
artificial openings in both cafes healed fpontaneoully, 
without any difficulty. (Mariner’s Account of the Tonga 
I (lands.) 
6. Entafia acrotifinus ; failure or ceflation of the pulfe; 
with iittle or no di/turbance of perception or voluntary 
power. Two varieties. 
a. A. univerfalis ; extending over the whole arterial 
fyfteni; and connedied with fternalgia. The inftances on 
record of this affeftion are few. The following lift we 
copy from Dr.Good. “ Sufpenfions of pulfation, without 
any other affection of the fyftem. Anecdotes de Medec'tne, 
p. 199. Marcell. Dom. lib. vi. cap. 2.—For feven days, 
without other aft'eftion. Riodlin, Lin. Med. 1696.—Seven 
days before death. Valifneri , Opp. iii. p. 278.—Chronic, 
and continuing through the-whole term of life. Berry at 
Hift, de 1 ’Acad. des Sciences a Paris, 1748.” See alfo Mr. 
J. Hunter’s ad'eftion in Sir Everard Home’s Life of him, 
prefixed to his Treatife on Inflammation, p. xlvi. 
confiding of a total fufpenfion of pulfation for nearly 
an hour, with ceflation of involuntary breathing for the 
fame time 5 countenance pale and ghaftly ; faculties of 
the mind, and power over the voluntary mufcles, perfeft; 
internal ftimulants ufelefs. Notwithftanding the high 
authority laft quoted, it does feem a circmnftance con¬ 
tradictory to all the phenomena of life that have been 
obferved, that the faculties of the mind, and the power 
of the voluntary mufcles, could continue perfeft while 
the circulation was fufpended. It feems more reafonable 
to fuppofe (and indeed fome warm advocates of Mr. Hun¬ 
ter’s doftrines do fuppofe), that the aftion of the heart 
was not in his cafe entirely fufpended, but at the fame 
time fo far leflened that no pulfation was conveyed to the 
hand. The ceflation of pulfation might aftually take 
place in the wrift from the feeble aftion of the heart. 
The cafe of Mr. J. Hunter is however one of much in- 
tereft, and worthy of attentive confideration. 
Dr. Cheyne, in one of his medical treatifes, relates 
a cafe, the accuracy of which is eftabliihed by an ir¬ 
refragable combination of evidence, of a man who could 
die, to all appearance, at any time that he chofe, and, 
after having lain for a confiderable period exaftly as a 
corpfe, was able, as it fhould feem, by a voluntary drug¬ 
gie, to re (to re to himfelf the appearance and all the various 
funftions of animation and intellect. It is to be inferred 
from the latter part of the (lory, that the unnatural and 
painful exertion by which this perfon aflumed the fenw 
blance of difeafe, produced at length a really fatal refult. 
Death would be no longer mocked with impunity. The 
counterfeit corpfe, a few hours after its revival, relapfed 
into a date which was capable of no fubfequent refufei- 
tation. But the cafe is fo interefting and remarkable as ’ 
to deferve our giving it in all the detail with which Dr. 
Cheyne prefents it to his readers. “He could die or ex¬ 
pire when he pleafed ; and yet, by an effort, or fomehow, 
he could come to life again. He infilled fo much upon 
our feeing the trial made, that we were at laft forced to 
comply. We all three felt his pulfe fir ft ; it was diftinft, 
though fmall and thready ; and his heart had its ufual 
beating. He compofed himfelf on his back, and lay in a 
(till pollure for fome time; while I held his right hand, 
Dr. Barnard laid his hand on his heart, and Mr. Skrine 
held a clear looking-glafs to his mouth. I found his 
pulfe fink gradually, till at laft I could not feel any by 
the mod exaft and nice touch. Dr. Baynard could not 
feel the lead motion in his heart, nor Mr. Skrine perceive 
the lead fort of breath on the bright mirror he held to his 
mouth. Then each of us, by turns, examined his arm, 
heart, breath ; but could not, by the niced fcrutlny, dif- 
cover the lead fymptoms of life in him. We reafoned a 
long time about this odd appearance as wellas we could ; 
and, finding he dill continued in that condition, we be¬ 
gan to conclude that he had indeed carried the experi¬ 
ment too far; and at laft we were fatisfied that he was 
, 4 K aftually 
