490 SLEEPY STAGGERS IMMOBILITY COMA. 



seemed to lose the power of his legs, and fell. When the 

 disease has advanced thus far, we find in the stable that the 

 animal heeds nothing except a loud sharp sound or the 

 sudden admission of the sun's rays into a dark stable, and 

 then it wakes from a state of drowsiness very suddenly, and 

 may fall. Not unfrequently horses thus affected drop and 

 break their knees. There is a peculiar fierce look and 

 flaccid state of the facial muscles. The limbs are extended, 

 and the animal obstinately stands ; indeed, the most curious 

 positions may be given to the limbs, and they then remain 

 as in cases of catalepsy. Thus one fore limb may be crossed 

 over the other, and it is there kept ; a hind limb may be 

 pushed far back or forwards, and the same indisposition to 

 move it is seen. The hind limbs are apt to become the seat 

 of twitching and even paralysis. The case assumes a chronic 

 form, and it is rare to observe a fatal result except owing 

 to some complication such as apoplexy, pulmonary conges- 

 tion, &c. At times there are signs of delirium paroxysm 

 of spasm and great nervous excitement, but these pass off, 

 and the animal is left dull and listless as before. 



After death, accumulations of serum in the cranium, in 

 the lateral ventricles, or in special cysts (Schone, Tenneker), 

 are occasionally met with. A state of ansemia, and some- 

 times of softening of portions of the brain, may exist, and 

 tumour of the choroid plexus induce at times symptoms such 

 as those I have just noticed. In acute cases of Immobility, 

 there seems to be accumulation of liquid in the spinal canal 

 as well as in the cranium, and it is in these cases that the 

 hind legs are seriously affected. 



TREATMENT. This is often hopeless, but moderate and 

 nutritious diet, purgatives, exercise, and rubefacients to the 

 spine and limbs, are the remedies we may expect most direct 

 benefit from. Nux vomica or strychnine and ferruginous 



