Cross-examined by Mr. GROVE--The proximate effect of tetanus, whether caused by idiopathic or traumatic tetanus, or strychnia, is probably the same on the nerves leading from the spine. The particular affection of the nerves is unknown. In the disorder of convulsions there are cases of very slight affection, others more serious, and so on. I adhere to the opinion given by me in my lectures on “Diseases of the Brain and Nervous System,” that the results of the administration of strychnine exactly imitate the convulsions of tetanus. It does not produce the exact phenomena of the disease in a clinical sense. I have no doubt the peculiar irritation of the nerves in tetanus is identical with the peculiar irritation of the nerves in strychnine poisoning. In traumatic tetanus I do not recollect any instance of the limbs being affected before the jaw. An examination of the spinal cord in tetanic affections shortly after death is of importance. If it were deferred as late as two months, there would be, to a certain extent, a fallacy. There are morbid appearances produced by wounds after death which sometimes simulate diseased conditions before death.
Supposing the spine to be affected by decomposition, would not what may be called the diseased softening of the spine previous to death be confused or obliterated?--You would not be able to speak with certainty as to simple softening if the examination had been long after death. There is nothing in the post-mortem examination on which any one could positively say that the patient died from the ordinary disease of tetanus. I think granules on the spinal cord, such as I have heard of here, are not likely to cause tetanus. In the cases of the animals to whom strychnia was administered they went off into a second spasm immediately they were touched. They retained that tendency as long as the influence of the poison lasted. I examined the animals that were killed by strychnia anatomically. The right side of the heart was not generally full; it was empty, and the heart contracted. Death where strychnine was administered is partly due to the difficulty of action of the respiratory muscles, but chiefly to a general nervous exhaustion which the violence of the paroxysm produces.