Mr. ROBERT EDWARD GAY, examined by Mr. SERJEANT SHEE--I am a member of the Royal College of Surgeons. In 1855 I attended a person named Foster suffering under tetanus. He had an inflammatory sore throat, muscular pains in the neck and the upper portion of the spinal vertebræ. He was feverish, and had the usual symptoms attending catarrh. On about the fourth day the muscular pains extended to the face. A difficulty of swallowing came on, the pains in the muscles covering the spinal vertebræ and in those of the lower jaw increased. In the evening of that day the jaw became completely locked; the pain came on in the muscles of the bowels, the same in the legs and the arms. He became very much convulsed throughout the entire muscular system. He had frequent and violent convulsions of the arms and hands, and afterwards of the legs. The difficulty of swallowing increased up to the ninth or tenth day. Not a particle of food, either solid or liquid, could be taken or introduced to the mouth. An attempt to swallow the smallest portion brought on the most violent convulsions. The convulsions were so strong throughout the whole system that I could compare him to nothing more than a piece of warped board in shape. The head was drawn back, the abdomen was forced forward, and the legs were frequently drawn upwards and backwards. The attempt of feeding with the spoon, the opening of the window, or placing the fingers on the pulse frequently brought on violent convulsions. He complained of great hunger. He was able to speak. He repeatedly cried out he was very hungry, what would he do if he could not eat? and he was kept alive till the fourteenth day by injections of a nutritive character. He screamed during these convulsions, and the noises he made were more like those of a dying man. About the twelfth day he became insensible. The convulsions, although very weak, continued till the fourteenth day, when he died. He was by business an omnibus conductor. He had been ill some few days--it might be a week. He had no other hurt or injury to his person of any kind which would account for these symptoms. His body was not examined after death.
By LORD CAMPBELL--What do you call the disease?--I call it inflammatory sore throat from cold and exposure to the weather. The symptoms became tetanic in consequence of an extremely nervous and anxious disposition. He had a very large family, and was a very hard-working man. I did not hear the evidence of the witnesses who described the symptoms of Mr. Cook.