380 RUPTURE OF THE GASTROCNEMIUS MUSCLE. 



I took a gallon of blood from the neck, and he then began to 

 swerve and perspire at the shoulder. The bleeding strangely 

 and instantaneously relaxed the spasmodic affection of the mus- 

 cular system, and the horse was enabled to put himself in a posi- 

 tion to void his urine, which he had not done for two days. Foment 

 the limb, and give opium and digitalis daily. 



Dec. \st. — Fever slightly abated. Pulse 70. Eats a little hay 

 and carrots. I now perceive a swelling extending from the mus- 

 cular part of the flexor tendons to the hock. The lameness is still 

 extreme. Bleed from the femoral vein. Give drachm doses of 

 aloes, tartar emetic, and digitalis, and foment the limb frequently. 



6th. — Pulse 60 ; lameness and pain as acute as ever. He can- 

 not put his foot to the ground, and moves on three legs. I again 

 opened the femoral vein, and divided the periosteum beneath a 

 part of the swelling six inches in length, and inserted a seton over 

 the swelling. Continually foment the limb, and give febrifuges. 



Vlth. — Pulse 50. Fever abated — feeds better — can bear a little 

 weight on the limb — seton discharges. Foment as before. 



19/A. — No fever — appetite good — swelling of thigh and hock 

 diminished, but very hard. The lameness still very great, and 

 which continued so until the middle of January, when it was deemed 

 necessary to destroy the patient. 



Dissection. — ^The faschice of the muscles of the thigh, generally, 

 considerably thickened ; the cellular tissue connecting together the 

 flexor muscles likewise thickened. On separating the gastroc- 

 nemius externus from the flexor pedis perforans muscle, a quart of 

 liquid blood, mixed with pus, escaped. The muscles were strongly 

 united and blended together by tendinous fibres, and it was with 

 great difficulty that I separated them : in the centre of the gastroc- 

 nemius externus muscle I discovered a great rent of a portion of 

 its fibres, and a cavity which was filled with pus and coagulated 

 blood. 1 observed spots of ecchymosis on various parts of the 

 superficies of the muscles of the thigh. The synovia in the hock 

 joint was of the consistence of glue*. 



Mr. Tombs once met, he says, with a similar case in a heifer, 

 caused by getting her leg entangled in a stile ; and adds, " I have 

 ♦ Veterinarian, vol. xii, p. 582. 



