TREATMENT OF TETANUS
British and Foreign Medico-Chirurgical Review, January 1851
By Professor Miller
[Speaking of the value of Cannabis Indica in this disease, Professor Miller says,]
I can now record three fortunate cases under its use; all traumatic. A girl, eleven years of age, sustained comminuted fracture of the finger. Tetanus occurred, the finger was amputated; and the treatment consisted of purgatives, cold to the spine, Indian hemp – pushed to narcotism – nourishment and seclusion. The amendment was gradual and complete. A boy, about the same age, had simple fracture of the thigh, with compound and comminuted fracture of the great toe. The treatment and result were the same. Another boy, rather older, had compound fractures of the bones of the arm. The treatment again resulted in cure. And in these cases I was and am inclined to award to the cannabis the greater part of the therapeutic agency. In other examples of the disease, I have seen it fail to cure, but never to relieve. It is given in doses of three grains of the extract, or thirty drops of the tincture; repeated every half hour hour, or two hours; the object being to produce and maintain narcotism. There is a very marked tolerance of the remedy.
