TETANUS.
Tetanus is defined to be spasm of the muscles of voluntary motion. That definition is right, as far as it goes. The disease, however, is the same in man and horse. The human being complains of the breathing being much oppressed, and of pain at the pit of the stomach. Such complaints show the diaphragm to be involved, while the large doses of strong medicine which can be swallowed with impunity prove the abdominal contents have not escaped. Therefore, the author regards tetanus as spasm of the entire muscular system.
A horse of any age may exhibit tetanus. Colts, newly dropped, have displayed the disorder, and all animals are liable to its attacks; but the very aged are least subject to this malady. Animals of a highly nervous temperament are most inclined toward it.
It is said to be of two kinds; but, in truth, it only has two origins. Traumatic tetanus is when it springs from a wound; idiopathic tetanus is when it appears without there being any known lesion to account for its presence. It may display its symptoms immediately or within a month of the injury. From the sixth to the fourteenth day is the most likely period for the advent of the disorder.
Cold, rain, draughts of air, and too much light, are all likely to originate it. Their potency, perhaps, ranges in the order they are placed. A gentleman is apt to dismount at some hospitable house and to leave the animal, which has quickly borne him thither, shivering in the night air. The master enjoys himself, probably, more than is good for his health. The patient steed waits and waits, more quietly than the most faithful of human slaves. It shivers in the night air; its limbs become cramped with the cold. The wind gets up, as the owner, before a cheerful fire, mixes another glass and takes another cigar. Still the horse remains almost in the spot where it was placed. The perspiration which covered the body dries in the darkness; evaporation quickly chills the blood which violent exercise had heated. The pulse sinks; spasms creep over the frame, but there is none near to note them. In solitude and discomfort the most painful of maladies is imbibed: in due time it breaks forth, to the astonishment of the proprietor.
Another man rides far and fast through a heavy shower. He reaches a distant house and flings himself from the saddle, fastening the horse to the door-post. Cordials are ready for the man, and business is discussed over a glass. No one thinks seriously of the poor life fastened to the door-post. "The horse is wet and can take no harm." "The gallop home will warm it," and so forth. Therefore, the animal remains, to be drenched by the rain and to creep as near to the house as it may for partial shelter; the posterior part of the body, however, projects, and the drops fall, heavy and cold as lead, upon the loins of the patient beast. The blood loses its warmth and the limbs their elasticity. When the owner again crosses the saddle he may be jolly; but it needs both spur and whip to cause the dripping and frozen animal to move.
When tetanus originates in some wound, the horse is generally nervous from the first. It fidgets in the stall; it lacks the repose which usually sits so beautifully upon the sick horse's frame. It is excited at the approach of any person, and, commonly, very obstinate when given physic. The wound may, nevertheless, be healthy. Sometimes, as the outbreak draws near, the wound may rapidly close, become morbidly dry, or, instead of pus, send forth only a foul and scanty serum. Instances are narrated of tetanus supervening upon mortification; but such reported cases are, in the horse, very rare. Commonly, the wound presents no appearance by which any man, however profound his knowledge, could guess the consequence to which it had given rise.
THE TEST FOR TETANUS, WHEN NOT FULLY DEVELOPED.