388 STRINGHALT. 



the limbs, but simply to a morbid affection of the sciatic nerve. 

 Other circumstances had more or less varied ; hut he had not dis- 

 sected a single case of stringhalt in which he had not met with 

 disease of this nerve : the nerve which mainly contributes to 

 supply the hind extremities with sensation and the power of vo- 

 luntary motion." This accounts for stringhalt being seated in the 

 hind limbs. 



Facts deducible from the foregoing Dissection — and 

 facts of a weighty character they are — inform us, that neither brain 

 nor spinal cord, nor muscles are in fault ; but that the nerve which 

 runs to the muscles of the hind limbs, the sciatic nerve, presents 

 an abnormal appearance, consisting in spots of ecchymosis upon 

 its membranous case or neurilema, which do not penetrate through 

 to, or anywise change the healthy aspect of, the substance of the 

 inclosed nerve. One question to be asked from this is, can we as 

 physiologists regard this ecchymosed condition of the neurilema 

 as sufficient to account for the symptoms of stringhalt] Another, 

 is such a morbid condition of a nature never to be removed ? This 

 last question is asked with the view of ascertaining how far the 

 answer may be found to accord with the notorious fact, that string- 

 halt is an incurable disease. 



