32 PARALYSIS — PALSY. 



can he raise himself upon his legs, although he struggles to do so 

 violently with his fore limbs, and succeeds perhaps in erecting 

 himself into the position of a dog sitting : still, his hind quarters 

 remain powerless upon the ground, reclined sideways, from 

 his not even being able to support them in the proper posture. 

 The probability is they have lost the faculty of feeling as well as 

 that of moving : this may readily be tested by pricks and pinches 

 of the skin, by blows, &c. Sensibility is not uniformly lost with 

 mobility : rarely, indeed, is it lost while motion is retained. In 

 extreme cases, the rectum and bladder participate in the paralysis : 

 the urine and faeces are retained. Oftener, these evacuations will 

 pass involuntarily, owing to palsy of the sphincters ; and when this 

 occurs, we may in general relinquish every hope of recovery. In 

 all cases it will be right for the practitioner to ascertain the condi- 

 tion of the bladder and rectum joer anum. 



The Symptoms of Hemiplegia consist in manifestations of 

 a loss of voluntary power of one side of the body, and of the 

 correspondent fore and hind limbs. Should the deprivation of 

 power be complete, the horse will be found down, lying upon the 

 paralytic side : it is only while the hemiplegia is partial or in- 

 complete that he can stand, perhaps walk, dragging, as he moves 

 along, the affected limbs after him : his head and neck, together 

 with his loins and hind quarters, will be carried inclined to one 

 side ; the affected eye will be drawn into its socket ; the corre- 

 sponding ear hang lopping down ; the lips be pendulous, and drawn 

 to one side. 



M. Girard, fils, has left us a case of hemiplegia replete with 

 so many curious observations, that I shall here translate it : — 



The sensibility of the left — the affected side — proved extremely acute ; the 

 lips and alae of the nose were drawn to the right side, the contrary to that to 

 which the head and neck turned; the occlusion of the nostrils was such that 

 the air made a blowing noise in its passage through them ; the left ear was 

 palsied, and the tongue slightly distorted; the hps and nostrils retained 

 their sensibility, though in a diminished degree to what it was on the un- 

 affected side. When oats were laid before the horse, he seized them with the 

 right side of his mouth, the left remaining motionless : he experienced great 

 difficulty in mastication, and succeeded only in swallowing a part of his food, 

 the remainder, staying behind, lodged between the cheek and molar teeth. 



