1 68 Veterinary Medicine. 



the disease in abeyance. Phosphoric acid and the various phos- 

 phates have been largely used and largely rejected, their main 

 value being in the tonic effect on the spinal centres. Trasbot 

 especially recommends the neutral gelatinoid phosphate of lime 

 as having proved especially valuable in his hands. He gave 

 from I grain upward to dogs twice a day. 



ARTERITIS (THROMBOSIS, EMBOI.ISM ) OF THE 

 SPINAL CORD AND MEMBRANES. 



Conditions of spinal circiilation favorable to embolism and microbian in- 

 vasion. Slow currents. Blood stasis. Free anastomosis a compensation. 

 Symptoms. Treatment. 



Facts are wanting with regard to these lesions in the domestic 

 animals, but anatomical, physiological and pathological consider- 

 ation are strongly suggestive of their occurrence. The vascular 

 network of the spinal cord favors a tardy circulation, and this in 

 turn is favorable to the arrest of solid bodies and the delay, pro- 

 liferation atid colonization of microbes. The median spinal artery 

 receives a supply of blood by two trunks, right and left, entering 

 by the intervertebral foramina at each intervertebral articulation. 

 It has not, therefore, one continuous, equable, onward flow, but 

 rather numerous independent currents corre.sponding to the enter- 

 ing vessels, and with intervening eddies or areas of comparative 

 stagnation. The nervous material of the cord admits no large 

 arteries but only capillary trunks which anastomose freely in its 

 substance. This would seem to entail a sluggish flow, which 

 would favor microbian arrest and colonization, even if the small 

 size of the vessels serves to shut out clots of any material size. 

 Finally the abundant venous plexus, and especially the two lateral 

 venous sinuses, communicating freely with each other and, 

 through each intervertebral foramen, with the extra spinal veins 

 determine a similar tardy flow that should be favorable to morbid 

 proces.ses. If we pa.ss back of these vessels, we find the posterior 

 aorta to be at once the largest and the mo.st direct channel for the 

 entrance of emboli coming from the left heart or lungs. This 

 danger is counteracted in greater part by the fact that the greater 



