The management and treatment of the horse in the stable, field, and ...

1S4 The Management and Treatment of the Horse,
no hope of the mouth being opened again, and the
horse, if not killed, must die of starvation, in a short
time nearly all the muscles of the body becoming spas-
modically affected. The cause of this disease proceeds
from the nerves being injured in consequence of a
wound having been received by one of the ligaments or
tendons. It sometimes comes on by an injury to
the foot from the puncture of a nail ; nicking and dock-
ing are often the cause of it. One case that I had was
caused by the waggoner cracking his whip in front of
the horse's head, the point of the lash striking the
horse on the ball of the eye, hurting the optic nerve.
It sometimes comes on instantaneously after the in-
fliction of the wound, and sometimes not until a con-
siderable time after. It is caused sometimes by the
animal being allowed to cool too suddenly when very
warm ; worms have also been known to be the remote
cause of tetanus ; bots have also produced it.
The usual way in which this disease comes on
seldom leads to no suspicion of what it is, as few who
have not previously watched its progress can trace its
character. Hence it has assumed its climax before
persons are aware of it. In this condition it can seldom
be cured, from the difficulty of administering medicine.
In this affection the endermic method of administering
remedies bids fair to become beneficial ; prussic acid,
morphia, atropine, conium, &c, or tinctures of plants
containing the last three substances are readily brought
to bear upon the system by the endermic syringe.
Injections also per anum of chloric ether and its allies
prove serviceable, and in the trassmatic form the