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Lock-Jaw

There are several very long and very learned names affixed to this disease, as it may happen to attack one part of the body or another. When it is confined to the muscles of the neck and jaws, lock-jaw is the common and expressive term for it. The affection, however, is always the same, requires similar treatment, and consists in an involuntary contraction and stiffening of a part of the muscles, the senses remaining perfect.

Lock-jaw.

Symptoms. A stiffness in the back of the neck, which renders it first painful, and at last impossible to turn the head round; difficulty in swallowing; pain in the breast, shooting to the back; the lower jaw becomes stiff and gradually closes.

Treatment. If the disease is supposed to arise from a wounded nerve, or from an injury done to tendinous parts, by a pointed instrument, enlarge the wound with a sharp lancet or penknife, and pour laudanum or turpentine into it, as directed for similar accidents. Give 2 or 3 grains of opium at once, and repeat it every two hours, increasing the dose according to the violence of the symptoms and the effects produced by it, without too much regarding the quantity that has been taken. Cases are on record where 60 grains (a drachm) of solid opium have been taken at once, and with the happiest effect. This, however, is a large dose, and should never be ventured on but under the most desperate and alarming circumstances. Active purging with castor oil and senna tea must not be omitted, and if the power of swallowing be lost, laudanum, etc., most be given in clysters.

Drawing a tooth is generally recommended by physicians in those cases where the jaws are firmly closed, for the purpose of transmitting medicines and food to the stomach. This has always appeared to me as every way calculated to increase the evil. If no opening exists between the teeth, access can always be obtained by clysters, and in this way nourishment and remedies may be injected. It is always proper, however, when the disease is perceived to be coming on, to place two small pieces of soft wood between the grinders of the upper and lower jaw, one on each side, so that they may be kept asunder.

Madeira wine, in doses of a wineglassful every hour, continued for several days, and combined with the internal use of opium and the warm bath, has been found of great service. Cold water dashed freely over the patient every two or three hours may likewise be tried. After every affusion he should be well wiped and put into a warm bed, when a large dose of laudanum in warm Madeira wine should be given. The tobacco clyster has sometimes succeeded when everything else has failed. So has chloroform by inhalation. Blistering the whole length of the spine, and caustic issues on its sides, as nearly on a line with the parts affected as possible, are strongly recommended. Although a valuable addition to our means of cure, the tobacco clyster is not to be employed lightly, or on common occasions. It should always be reserved to the last moment, never using it until everything else has failed. The prostration of the system, and other alarming symptoms it sometimes causes, renders this caution necessary. Painful Affection of the Nerves of the Face.

This disease is also called tic-doloureux, neuralgia, etc. Symptoms. A very severe pain darting in particular directions, not lasting more than a second, but very rapidly repeated, and excited by the slightest touch; during the intervals there is no pain whatever. There is no inflammation or swelling of the cheek, as in toothache, nor does the pain seem so deeply seated.