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the organs of respiration, the mouth, and the nose; and if
along with the humours the spirit be mixed, it appears like
the relief of all the former feelings of suffocation. They
accordingly spit out foam, as the sea ejects froth in mighty
tempests; and then at length they rise up, the ailment now
being at an end. At the termination, they are torpid in their
members at first, experience heaviness of the head, and loss
of strength, and are languid, pale, spiritless, and dejected,
from the suffering and shame of the dreadful malady.
CHAPTER VI. ON TETANUS
TETANUS, in all its varieties, is a spasm of an exceedingly
painful nature, very swift to prove fatal, but neither easy to be
removed. They are affections of the muscles and tendons
about the jaws; but the illness is communicated to the whole
frame, for all parts are affected sympathetically with the primary
organs. There are three forms of the convulsion, namely,
in a straight line, backwards, and forwards. Tetanus is in a
direct line, when the person labouring under the distention is
stretched out straight and inflexible. The contractions forwards
and backwards have their appellation from the tension
and the place; for that backwards we call Opisthotonos; and
that variety we call Emprosthotonos in which the patient is
bent forwards by the anterior nerves. For the Greek word
τόνος is applied both to a nerve, and to signify tension.
The causes of these complaints are many; for some are apt
to supervene on the wound of a membrane, or of muscles, or of
punctured nerves, when, for the most part, the patients die; for,
"spasm from a wound is fatal." And women also suffer from
