THE MODERN HORSE DOCTOR. 49 



advisable to have recourse to sulphur as consecutive treatment." 

 — Veterinary Homceopathy, p. 127. 



CONCUSSION OF THE BRAIN. 



The bony structure — which encloses the cerebral organs — 

 is so wisely adapted for their protection, that injuries of this char- 

 acter are somewhat rare : a very few cases have come to our 

 knowledge during nine years' residence in Massachusetts ; but we 

 have never treated but one, and that may be termed a mild case. 

 The subject was a bay gelding, nine years old, blind in the off eye 

 from cataract ; he had been left opposite the " Revere House," 

 harnessed to a furniture wagon, when some person threw a lighted 

 cigar on him ; he then ran across the street, and was suddenly 

 brought up by striking his head against an iron railing ; he fell 

 on the pavement, and lay there for some time in an insensible 

 condition, almost pulseless, and the respiration scarcely discern- 

 ible. He was unharnessed, and the bystanders attempted to raise 

 him up ; but he had lost all control over the muscles of voluntary 

 motion, and drooped his head as though he were dying. The 

 horse having received a wound just above the left orbit, from 

 which the blood was trickling down, it was supposed that the 

 skull was fractured, and the owner was just thinking about de- 

 spatching him, when, all at once, he rose on the fore legs and 

 squatted on his haunches like a dog. After remaining in this 

 position a short time, and making fruitless efforts to get up, he at 

 last, under assistance, rose, and after a good deal of trouble, 

 reached the proprietor's stable. 



Our attention having now been called to the patient, we found 

 him scarcely able to stand; pulse about 50, full and jerking; 

 respiration hurried and somewhat laborious ; the body bedewed 

 with a cold sweat ; the pupil of the sound eye was dilated ; the 

 head drooping, and inclined to the nigh side. On exploring the 

 wound, neither fracture nor injury to the bones could be per- 

 ceived ; it was therefore brought together by stitches, arid dressed 

 with " Turlington's Balsam." 



So soon as the horse had been rubbed dry, a preparation, con- 

 sisting of equal parts of tincture of lobelia and capsicum, was 



