Observations upon the effects of electricity, applied to a tetanus, or muscular rigidity, of four months continuance. In a letter to the Royal Society ... / [Sir William Watson].

  • Watson, William, Sir, 1715-1787.
Date:
1763
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations upon the effects of electricity, applied to a tetanus, or muscular rigidity, of four months continuance. In a letter to the Royal Society ... / [Sir William Watson]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    [ «4 ] different mufcles, and throwing the body into different kinds of didortion. Celfus f has mentioned and defcribed this difeafe, to which no name was affigned by his countrymen, and has called it “ Quidam nervorum rigor.” Tho’ this excellent author reckons it among the difeafes of the neck, the parts fird affeded by it are the mufcles fubfervient to the motions of the lower jaw, from which it is ufually, if the difeafe continues, propagated to thofe of the neck. Caelius J Aurelianus has, as it is fuppofed, from Soranus, defcribed it, and handed down to us fuch methods of cure, as had been found in his time mod fuccefsful. Pliny § mentions the Tetanus in many parts of his Natural Hidory. He forbids the ufe of wine to thofe who labour either under this diieafe, or the Opidhotonus. ITe recommends in dif¬ ferent parts of his work, as internal remedies, cador, hellebore l| the adies of the fig-tree, pediculi marini, and pepper. He ad- vifes warm baths, with the nitre of the ancients diffolved in them ; and direds the patients at other times to be rubbed with the co- agulum found in the domach of a calf, or with the juice of Pen cedanum, or hogs-fennel. This, it is to be prefumed, was the mok general method of treating thefe difeafes, in the age wherein This difeafe is frequent in Greece, Italy, and in the warmer parts of Europe, where its effeds are feverely felt. * Pontius who redded long in the Ead Indies, has briefly defcribed it; which,' t Lib. IV. Cap. in. t Morb. Acut. Lib. III. Cap. VI. § Piinii Hilt. Nat. Lib. xxvi. xxxi. xxxii. I! Ibid Lib. xxv. The hellebore made ufe of, was to be prepared in (at that time) Lc '0 ~d,fc°vered manner, which was to prevent the effects of its acrimony This was by putting the hellebore between radilhes fplit, and then tied together including the hellebore; which, by being macerated in this manner for about fe^Srf was mppofed to become more mild in its operation. ’ * Bontii Meth. Medendi, Cap. II, De Spafmo. though o