Kitap 1
6
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.
