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and other domestic animals, of unknown cause. It is characterized by muscular tremors and spasms, followed by more or less complete paralysis. The principal lesion is an inflammation of the membranes covering the brain and spinal cord.

remarkable for its powerful and enduring odor. It is used in medicine as a stimulant antispasmodic. The term is also applied to secretions of various other animals, having a similar odor.

A tetanic spasm in which the body is bent backwards and stiffened.

strong smell and acrid taste, and was formerly used in medicine as an emmenagogue and antispasmodic. Dunglison.

Any sudden and violent emotion; spasmodic passion or action; a convulsion; a fit. The returning paroxysms of diffidence and despair. South.

Flying. -- Phantom tumor (Med.), a swelling, especially of the abdomen, due to muscular spasm, accumulation of flatus, etc., simulating an actual tumor in appearance, but disappearing upon the administration of an anæsthetic.

A spasm; a fit; a syncope; delirium. [Obs.] Shak.

adual, but that there may come sudden and marked variations. See Saltation. -- Saltatory spasm (Med.), an affection in which pressure of the foot on a floor causes the patient to spring into the air, so as to make repeated involuntary motions of hopping and jumping. J. Ross.

rdonic grin of a bloody ruffian. Burke. Sardonic grin or laugh, an old medical term for a spasmodic affection of the muscles of the face, giving it an appearance of laughter.

Of or pertaining to spasm; spasmodic; especially, pertaining to tonic spasm; tetanic.

Spasmodically.

A state of spasm.

A disturbance in the formation of sounds. It is due essentially to long-continued spasmodic contraction of the diaphragm, by which expiration is preented, and hence it may be considered as a spasmodic inspiration.

A convulsive motion, twitch, or spasm; a spasmodic effort. For she did speak in starts distractedly. Shak. Nature does nothing by starts and leaps, or in a hurry. L'Estrange.

By sudden fits or starts; spasmodically. Shak.

ed rather than localized contractions, and in always indicating an origin organic and not spasmodic.

A painful discharge of urine, drop by drop, produced by spasmodic muscular contraction.

A localized morbid contraction of any passage of the body. Cf. Organic stricture, and Spasmodic stricture, under Organic, and Spasmodic. Arbuthnot.

To hesitate or stumble in uttering words; to speak with spasmodic repetition or pauses; to stammer. Trembling, stuttering, calling for his confessor. Macaulay.

c state; tetanic contraction. This condition of muscle, this fusion of a number of simple spasms into an apparently smooth, continuous effort, is known as tetanus, or tetanic contraction. Foster.