Observations upon the effects of electricity, applied to a tetanus, or muscular rigidity, of four months continuance. In a letter to the Royal Society ... / [Sir William Watson].

Watson, William, Sir, 1715-1787.

Date:: 1763

Credit: Observations upon the effects of electricity, applied to a tetanus, or muscular rigidity, of four months continuance. In a letter to the Royal Society ... / [Sir William Watson]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$and which was only through a fmall opening made by extracting two of her teeth, and without which {he muft inevitably have been ftarved, fhe was emaciated in a moft extraordinary manner. Her belly was contracted, and pulled inwards towards the fpine. Her whole body, to the touch, felt hard and dry, and much more like that of a dead animal than a living one. This, added to the very great diftortion of her back and lower limbs, heightened the difagreeable fpeCtacle, and called to my mind that admirable paf- fage of * AretcEus, who, when treating of and contemplating this difeafe, calls it “ inhumana calamitas, injucundus afpeCtus, trifle <c intuenti fpeCtaculum, et malum infanabile.” And he fubjoins, that “ their diftortions are fueh, that they cannot be known by “ their moft intimate friends which in the cafe before us was moft ftriCtly true. During the continuance of this diforder, which had lafted now more than four months, nothing had been omitted that either Dr. Morton or myfelf could fuggeft for her relief. While worms or foul bowels could be fufpeCted to have occafioned this illnefs, as her ftools were at firft very offenftve, and (lie had voided two worms, vermifuges of the moft celebrated kind, linfeed oil both by the mouth and by clyfters, and fuch other medicines as tend both to carry off or deftroy the worms, and cleanfe the bowels, were affiduoufly adminiftered. But no relief ariftng from thefe, bleeding with leeches at the temples, when her fever ran high, blifters behind the ears, round the neck, upon the head, and in various parts of her body, were from time to time applied, as the diforder feemed to indicate. Nor during this time were anti- fpafmodic remedies of various kinds omitted, and that in very li¬ beral doles. Among thefe, as in feveral cafes of locked jaws, related by authors of undoubted credit, opiates had been found * ^aP‘ VI* EZavQgWTTQsb $V(*!pO£Y\ HOU al£f7Tri$ (MV V c^i£, $£ KCU TW OgECvh Qirjy aVWETQV $£ TO folVQV, to$