FRACTURE OF THK SKULL. 9 



some difficulty he was dragged into a coach-house, plentifully littered — bled 

 to about twelve quarts, took aloes comp. 3xij, and a stimulating enema every 

 second hour; and this lotion, viz, muriat. ammon. Jss, acet. distilL Jiv, 

 sprts. vini Jiij, aquae tfeij, to be applied frequently to the head. — Sept. \^th. 

 Still lying. Pulse full and frequent. V.S. ad ftij — continue lotion. Was 

 turned upon the off side, having lain long upon the near. Died at twelve 

 o'clock. Examination. — A piece of skin corresponding to the broad promi- 

 nence near side of atlas was found stripped of its cuticle. The basilary pro- 

 cess of the occiput was broken in two ; also both condyloid processes were 

 broken off short by sudden and extraordinary pressure of the atlas against 

 them : this pressure was so great, that a portion of the muscle so compressed 

 had forced out a part of the thin plate of the atlas. 



A case precisely similar occurred at Mr. Field's farm ; save in that the two 

 condyloid processes and the basilary were broken off in one piece. This horse 

 experienced perfect paralysis of all parts posterior to the occiput, and died 

 in a few hours after the accident. Immediately after receiving the injury he 

 could in some measure extend his limbs, and still possessed sensibility in 

 several parts of the body, as was evident by his endeavouring to exert himself 

 when a whip was applied ; although he could only stand while propped against 

 a wall. 



*^* The senses of vision, tasting &c., also the common feeling in such parts 

 as derived their nerves from the brain anterior to the seat of injury were 

 observed by Mr. Field to be very acute : " a circumstance," he adds, " that 

 may serve as a diagnostic between the effects of an accident of this kind and 

 those of any affection of the brain or its membranes." 



LOSS OF SUBSTANCE OF THE BRAIN. 



Now and then, in sheep affected with hydatids in this organ, 

 considerable loss of substance of the cerebrum has been observed, 

 and without any apparent derangement or even inconvenience from 

 it : something very similar has come under the observation of my 

 old and excellent friend, Mr. King, of Stanmore, and has been re- 

 corded by him in The Veterinarian for 1831, from which I here 

 extract it. 



December \st — now six years past — a horse belonging to Mr. Geo. 

 Elmore was sent to my stables with a very small punctured wound on the 

 head, apparently caused by a nail or the sharp-pointed prong of a fork, 

 through the lower edge of the right temporal muscle, and which on examina- 

 tion with a small surgeon's probe, proved to pass through the parietal bone, 

 just above the coronary suture. It had the appearance of having happened 

 not very recently. I made an extensive crucial incision through the scalp, 



VOL III. C 



