The lock-jaw of infants (trismus nascentium) or nine day fits, crying spasms, etc ; its history, cause, prevention and cure / by J. F. Hartigan.

  • Hartigan, James French, -1894.
Date:
1884
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The lock-jaw of infants (trismus nascentium) or nine day fits, crying spasms, etc ; its history, cause, prevention and cure / by J. F. Hartigan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    is produced from exjDosiire to the night air, and most probably from exhalations from the ground. Most writers believe that the cord has something to do with its origin, but they don't know what. Numerous modes of treatment have been adopted, but in practice all prove unsuccessful. So rarely has a case been reported cured, that many rtgard such instances as errors in diagnosis^'' (Baldwin). Evanson and Maunsell say : With respect to the treatment of trismus nascentium, when it has once set in, every thing is empiri- cism, and little is to be expected from any plan. Dr. Meriwether, of Alabama, believes that it generally appears sporadically, rarely attacking white children, which is to be accounted for by the superior cleanliness of the white race. As opposed to such view, the editor of the ]Sf. 0. Med. and Surg. Jour. (Yol. II., 1846-7), remarks that the affection is by no means confined to col- ored children in that city, but is occasionally met with in the most respectable white families. This statement is confirmed by the Annual Report for 1882, which shows a mortality of one hundred and seventy-two (not including one hundred and six cases reported as infantile convulsions), of which number ninety are white. Similar reports come from other Southern cities.