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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    1845-6, Dr. Wooten remarks : I liave usually observed tlie first sym]3toms to make their ap- pearance about the time the umbilical cord comes away, and from this I at first supposed that it was the effect of awkwardness in dressing the navel by the ignorant midwives, but careful investiga- tion led to nothing conclusive on this point. In the same number of foregoing named jour- nal, the editor invites communications on the subject, because of the alarming mortality at that period, numbering 150 annually in H^ew Orleans. Such has been the history of this disease, and the various causes given by those who perhaps devoted most attention to it. The suggestion just preceding may have met the eye of Dr. Sims at the time. At all events, in the same year his first paper appeared in the Amer. Jour, of the Med. Sciences^ giving his interesting vievfs. In the subsequent one in 1848, after further experi- ence and investigation, he made clearer those views, modifying some of his first proi^ositions. Before discussing them in connection with my own facts and cases, I will briefly review what has since been written on the subject, and will also refer to the claimed analogy to tetanus in the adult.