Cross-examined by the ATTORNEY-GENERAL--That is what you call idiopathic tetanus?--Yes, decidedly so. I have had a vast number of cases of inflammatory sore throats and a great many anxious, nervous patients. That is the only case I have ever seen of idiopathic tetanus.
If I rightly apprehend your history of the symptoms, the disease was altogether progressive in its character, and, although there was an occasional cessation of the more painful symptoms, there never was a full cessation of the symptoms?--He was not suffering from tetanic affection. There was a twitching of the muscles going on, but there was not that violent convulsion. The lockjaw was the first of the more aggravated symptoms that presented itself, the muscular spasms about the trunk of the body progressing onwards to the extremities. He was conscious till the tenth day, when insensibility supervened while the convulsions were upon him. I consider the brain had been affected and congestion had taken place, and that produced insensibility.
After that was there some diminution in the severity of the convulsions?--Very great diminution, but they still continued.
Would that be likely to take place from the constant recurrence of the convulsions?--From the constant recurrence of the convulsions the brain would be congested.
You would expect to find a difference in that respect in a case where a man died very early in such a disease, and where it was spread over a longer period?--That would depend greatly on the violence of the convulsions.
By LORD CAMPBELL--And the repetition?--And the repetition.
Mr. JOHN BROWN ROSS, examined by Mr. GROVE--I am house surgeon to the London Hospital. On 22nd March a labourer, aged thirty-seven, was brought to the hospital about half-past seven in the evening. He had had one paroxysm in the receiving room of our hospital before I saw him. He had a rapid but feeble pulse, breathing quickly though not laboriously. The jaws were closed and fixed, there was an expression of anxiety about the countenance, and the features were sunken. He was unable to swallow, the muscles of the abdomen and back were somewhat tense. After he had been in the ward about ten minutes he had another paroxysm and opisthotonos, which lasted about one minute. He was then quiet for a few minutes; he had then another, and died. He had only been in the hospital about half an hour. An inquest was held on the body, but no poison was found. I attribute the cause of death to tetanus. There were three wounds, two on the back of the right elbow, about the size of a shilling each, and one on the left elbow, about the size of a sixpence. The man told me he had had them about twelve or sixteen years. They were old, chronic, indurated ulcers, circular in outline, the edges thickened round, undermined, and covered with a dirty white coating without any granulations. I am unable to say what produced those ulcers. I have seen old, chronic syphilitic wounds in the legs similar to those in the elbow, but I cannot say that these were so. These wounds were the only things to account for tetanus. There was no other cause found.