36 PARALYSIS— PALSY. 



get up again." Mr. H. was sent for, and found the hind limbs completely 

 paralytic, both sensation and motion being destroyed in them : the fore legs 

 retaining their full action and sensibility. The mare survived the accident 

 but a few hours. The anterior lumbar vertebra was fractured ; the spinous 

 process was torn from its body, and was pressing upon the theca vertebralis, 

 at which part was a considerable quantity of extravasated blood, and also some 

 among the enveloping muscles. The lumbar transverse processes, which had 

 previously become ossified together, were also fractured through their middles. 

 The circumstance of the mare being enabled to get out of the ditch was 

 owing, Mr. H. thought, to the fractured vertebra remaining in its plaee " until 

 the time of the fall, although previously broken.*" 



Laborious Draught, M. Bouley, in the Recueil de Medecine 

 Vtterinaire for June 1830, has remarked, is not an uncommon 

 cause of paraplegia ; such efforts, when violent, being likely to 

 concuss or strain the medulla spinalis in its least supported part, 

 the loins ; and to produce, either immediately or remotely, effusion 

 into the theca vertebralis, satisfactorily accounting for the palsy. 



Cold combined with Moisture is known to produce palsy. 

 In marshy pastures, in cold and wet seasons, the disorder has seized 

 the turned -out horses. In India, what is called 



Kumree is now, I believe, ascertained to be paraplegia, pro- 

 ceeding from the effects of cold and wet. 



Palsy in Man is a common consequence of what is called "an 

 apopletic stroke." To this species, as far as my observations have 

 extended, horses can hardly be said to be subject; indeed, apoplexy 

 in horses is very rare ; and when it does occur, mostly destroys life. 



Reflected Irritation, caused by disease or derangement of 

 organs unconnected with, or remote from, the seat of palsy, must 

 be ranked among its causes. That it is operative in the horse's 

 constitution I cannot for a moment hold a doubt; but to what ex- 

 tent, I am not yet in a situation to say. The irritation, whatever 

 or wherever it may be, is first carried to the nervous centre, whence, 

 by a reflex operation, it is transmitted to and along the nerves of 

 voluntary motion, producing similar effects upon them and the 

 parts to which they are distributed as though the nervous centre 

 itself had actually been the subject of lesion or compression. To 



* The same case is related in vol. i, page 262. 



