Or Lock-Jaw, a nervous affection of a most painful and fatal character, which usually begins with intensely painful and persistent cramp of the muscles of the throat and jaws, spreading down to the larger muscles of the body. As the disease progresses the muscles become more and more rigid, while the paroxysms of pain increase in violence and frequency. Death as a rule results from either sheer exhaustion or failure of breath through the spasmodic closure of the glottis. The cause of the disease is now ascertained to be due to the action of a microbe, which may find an entrance through any wound or abrasion of the skin, not necessarily of the thumb as is the popular belief.