A treatise on tetanus : being the essay for which the Jacksonian Prize, for the year 1834, was awarded, by the Royal College of Surgeons, in London / by Thomas Blizard Curling.

Date:: 1836

Credit: A treatise on tetanus : being the essay for which the Jacksonian Prize, for the year 1834, was awarded, by the Royal College of Surgeons, in London / by Thomas Blizard Curling. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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$cessary for the removal of this form of the disease are, ])iirgatives, local and general depletion, counter lirritation, mercury. As the tetanic irritation is here excited by active inflammatory action, in some ^part of the cerebro-spinal centre, or its membranes, [the most energetic antiphlogistic measures must be I pursued, until the symptoms of inflammation are 'Subdued. Should, however, the spasms still con- :fcinue, tetanic irritation remaining after its exciting :cause is removed, the means recommended [for the :treatment of the first form, or of the third, accord- ing to the severity of the muscular contractions, must be then resorted to. 3. Chronic Tetanus.—The following remedies may be variously resorted to, according to the particular •circumstances of the case. Purgatives, opium, an- timony, vapour and warm water baths, the carbo- nate of iron, and other tonics, electricity. If the case be attended with febrile or inflammatory symptoms, proper means must be taken to remove them. In such instances the exhibition of opium, and other sedatives, may often be advantageously combined with antiphlogistic treatment ; and it should be borne in mind, that although the spasms may be partly allayed by depletion, their complete removal does not depend upon the extent to which it is carried \ and that the debility resulting from rictive depletion, is invariably prejudicial to ultimate recovery from tetanic irritation.$