The lock-jaw of infants (trismus nascentium) or nine day fits, crying spasms, etc ; its history, cause, prevention and cure / by J. F. Hartigan.

  • Hartigan, James French, -1894.
Date:
1884
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The lock-jaw of infants (trismus nascentium) or nine day fits, crying spasms, etc ; its history, cause, prevention and cure / by J. F. Hartigan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

    12/132 (page 8)
    sis. Tlie Committee, however, did not agree, either as to the identity of the disease or its etiology. Dr. T. S. Yerdi, who saw every case, sustained Dr. Stewart, and ascribed the predisposing causes to social condition, poverty, filth, impure air, un- wholesome food, etc.; and maintained that the disease was not peculiar to any locality, latitude or country ; while Dr. D. W. Bliss, the other medical member, who saw only two cases, denied its ex- istence to the extent represented, and declared, among the many supposed causes, irritating dress- ings to the navel, pins penetrating the skin, rough handling, falls, blows, exposure to cold, etc. About the time mentioned, several of these cases came under my observation, with the curi- ously uniform post-mortem appearances of con- gestion and extravasation of the brain or spine (more commonly the latter), or both ; there was no other lesion observed internally, except occa- sionally engorgement of the lungs. These facts gradually impressed me with the imjDortance of determining, if possible, the cause or nature of a disease so fatal within the first month of infantile existence. The Act of Congress, a few months later, abolishing the Board of Health, and substi- tuting therefor a Health Ofiicer, afforded me the