504 SPORADIC DISEASES. 



tlie limLs, but very slightly, and possessed a little sensibility 

 when pricked with a pin. In both cases the sphincters were 

 relaxed, and urine flowed involuntarily. 



In the third case — the one which lived — the symptoms were 

 those of incomplete paralysis of the whole muscular system; 

 there w^as drooping of the lips, semi-closure of the eyelids, 

 staggering gait, automatic muscular movements, and when the 

 horse was moved, muscular action continued for some time. 

 When its head was pressed against a solid object, such as the 

 w^alls of the stable, it would continue to move its limbs, and 

 press its head and body forward with great force ; indeed there 

 seemed to be a tendency to go straight forward. The desire for 

 food was pretty good, and although mastication and deglutition 

 were performed with difficulty, it was able to take a fair amount 

 of support, consisting of milk, eggs, gruel, &c., in addition to 

 ordinary food. It continued in this condition for about four- 

 teen days, when it burst through the box door during the night 

 of 31st December 1862, and was found prostrate, and covered 

 with snow, in my yard in Bradford, when the groom went into 

 the yard on the morning of 1st January ; it was immediately 

 dragged into its box, and covered over with clothing and straw. 

 It lay prostrate, steaming with perspiration, thus induced, for 

 three days, during which time it scarcely moved. As the bowels 

 were constipated, a full cathartic was given, which responded on 

 the second day ; the urine flowed involuntarily, doing away with 

 the necessity of using the catheter. On the third morning some 

 degree of consciousness returned, and it was now able to drink 

 water — small quantities of which had been carefully given it 

 out of a bottle — and in the evening it rose to its feet. It now 

 gradually recovered, but ever afterwards showed some degree of 

 aberration of mental powers — " intellect," if the term is proper — 

 and was always called the " cranky horse " by the men about 

 it. I conclude that tliis was a case of small abscess in the 

 cerebral substance, from the fact that it was at the time affected 

 with a pyogenic disease — strangles — and from the similarity of 

 the symptoms to those seen in the cases in wliich I had the 

 opportunity of making post mortem examinations ; and I account 

 for the partial recovery on the supposition that the pus had either 

 broken down and was absorbed, or had become inspissated, and 

 the meduUary tissue of the brain accommodated to its presence. 



