386 STRING II ALT. 



being over-weighted about these parts : accidents that are but 

 seldom detected, since they may not be severe enough to constitute 

 broken-back, though they may so far disturb the nervous functions 

 as to cause stringhalt. Should the injury, or the consequences of 

 it, be confined to one side, then only one column of the marrow 

 will be affected, and but one leg convulsed. The nature and ex- 

 tent of disease will perhaps determine the degree of stringhalt*." 



In May, 1833, Bond's (a troop) horse, met with a hurt from a 

 fall on turning in -his stall while on duty at the Horse Guards. At 

 first he shewed the usual symptoms of " chinked" or " broken" 

 back ; afterwards, that wayward and incontrollable motion of his 

 hind limbs which would seem to denote the approach of string- 

 halt : indeed, from his catching-up action of the hind legs such an 

 issue appeared more than doubtful. He was admitted into hospital 

 for the injury, and after repeated bleedings and purgings, and 

 blisters over the back and loins, and rest for nearly five months, 

 he was — his case being hopeless — destroyed, having at the time 

 decided stringhalt. There was found at the side of the body of the 

 last dorsal vertebra, laceration of the thecavertehralis, accompanied 

 by softness of the marrow and caries of the body of the vertebra. 

 Some traces of inflammatory action remained ; but there were no 

 signs of effusion or suppuration. 



Mr. Goodwin, veterinary surgeon to the Queen, did, and I be- 

 lieve still does, entertain similar views concerning the seat and 

 nature of stringhalt. He has given,. in THE VETERINARIAN for 

 December, 1829, the case of a horse in the royal stables, who, 

 having stringhalt in both hind legs, happened one day to fall in 

 the Riding School, from the effects of which he died. His body 

 was examined, particularly as to his stringhalt, and it was found that 

 three of his dorsal vertebrae were anchylosed, and the spinal canal 

 considerably narrowed. 



A highly interesting post-mortem investigation into the seat and 

 nature of stringhalt was prosecuted with much care and solicitude 

 on the carcass of the celebrated race-horse, Guilford, who, prior to 

 his death, was so notoriously the subject of stringhalt that, " the 

 belly was forcibly struck by the pastern joints every time the hind 

 •* Elementary Lectures on the Veterinary Art, vol. i, p. 231. 



