2U INJURIES. 



much as it did not fall suddenly. Tt suffered and struggled a good 

 deal during the operation ; but, on being released from the hobbles, after 

 it was over, instead of rising, it lay quiet, and groaned. It was urged 

 to get up. It tried to do so, raised itself upon the fore limbs, and sat 

 upon the quarters. It could not get more erect. By means of support 

 under the belly with a leaping bar, and the assistance of a dozen or more 

 men, we got it into a loose box. Next day it was destroyed. The 

 body of the fifteenth dorsal veterbra was found fractured through 

 its middle. The spinal medulla not lacerated, but pressed open. 

 There are several instances where the practitioner has been unconscious 

 of any accident until the animal has been released from the hobbles ; 

 then it has been found unable to ris.e, or without the power of walking to 

 its stable. In one case nothing was perceived until after the animal had 

 walked back to the stable ; which shows that the fractured vertebraa re- 

 mained in their place for some time afterwards. The bone broken is 

 commonly one of the posterior dorsal, or anterior lumbar vertebrre ; and 

 the fracture is always accompanied with displacement, by which the 

 spinal marrow becomes compressed. This occasions paralysis of the 

 hind quarters. Mr. Hudson, Y.S., Lincoln, relates a case of a mare 

 which, " while hunting, in endeavouring to clear a ditch of two yards 

 wide, dropped in with her hind parts, but succeeded in getting out, and 

 staggered a short distance further, when she fell, and could not be made 

 to get up again." Mr. Hudson found the hind extremities paralysed and 

 insensible. The animal survived but a few hours. Mr. Hudson dis- 

 covered a fracture in the anterior lumbar vertebrae, the spinous pro- 

 cess of which was pressing on the theca vertebralis. The lumbar ver- 

 tebra? appeared all anchylosed together, and every one of the transverse 

 processes was broken about its middle: "which," as Mr. Hudson ob- 

 serves, " must have been occasioned by the action of the muscles cover- 

 ing these parts." 



Mr. Turnor (1st Life Guards), in passing over a grip in the middle of 

 a field, while out hunting, " broke his horse's back behind the saddle 

 and was thrown himself over the animal's head." 



Mr. Till, V.S., Windsor, had a horse of Mr. Aldridge's, of Chippen- 

 ham, to fire. After it was cast, during a struggle it had, one of the men 

 said, " Did you hear that crack, sir ?" " No !" replied Mr. Till, and 

 went on with the operation. When the mare came to be released, 

 and to be roused to get up, it had no power in the hind quarters — 

 the back was broken. I went the next morning to see the animal. I found 

 it lying in a box, partly covered with straw. On being spoken to, 

 and alarmed a little with the whip, it raised itself up before, but had 

 lost all power of moving the hind limbs. Though motion, however, 

 was gone, sensation remained. When pricked with a pin upon the 



