DISEASES OF THE BRAIN AND NERVES. 109 



are sometimes completely fractured, and a portion of bone 

 pressing on the spinal cord not only destroys the power of 

 motion, but produces tlie most acute suffering, under which the 

 animal dies in a few days. In otlier cases of somewhat less 

 severity, there is a partial dislocation of the vertebrae, so that the 

 cord is pressed on, or quite as frequently some vessels are 

 ruptured, and the blood presses on the cord. If the upper roots 

 of the nerves are materially injured, there is loss of feeling, as 

 Avell as of motion ; but this is rare. When there is much pres- 

 sure on the spinal cord, the horse is rarely of much service 

 afterwards, although he may get considerably better ; there is 

 generally a weakness left, which incapacitates him for bearing 

 burdens or for heavy draught: he may afterwards, however, 

 work lightly. These accidents are comparatively frequent in 

 the army, whci'e they arise from bringing young horses sud- 

 denly on their haunches : horses in this state are said to be 

 chinked in the back. 



The treatment in severe cases should consist of copious vene- 

 section, laxative and febrifuge medicine, and the application of 

 wai'm sheep skins at first to the loins, and succeeded by setons, 

 blisters, or a blistering charge. 



There is a disease in India very similar to this, called Kumree. 

 It is described by Mr. Hughes in the Veterinarian, who says, 

 " I am of opinion, that the kumree is a weakness in the hind 

 extremities, produced by pressure on the nerves going to these 

 parts ; or it is a symptom, or rather a termination, of inflammation 

 of the brain, or its membranes, which, in the human subject, 

 would produce hydrocephalus ; but probably from the structure 

 of the horse, the accumulation of the effused fluids is prevented, 

 and they pass down within the thecje of the medulla spinalis. 

 This inflammation of the brain is of a mild or subdued form ; 

 were it greater, it would induce phrenitis. The causes of it 

 are heat, sudden changes from heat to cold, and from cold to 

 heat, and plethora. Severe blows on the head may also occa- 

 sion it." 



Mr. Twining, in a paper presented to the Calcutta Medical 

 Society, nnd copied into the Veterinarian, attributes the kumree 

 to animalculte, either about the vertebra? or the cellular texture 

 connected with them : and Captain Wyatt says, that he has often 

 been present during the dissection of hoi'ses that had died of 

 kumree, and that he has seen these worms. The statement of 

 Mr. Gill, however, does not confirm these statements. " I have," 

 he observes, '' almost invariably found in the stomach and in- 

 testines, worms similar to those in the eye, and also in tumours in 

 the stomach, but never in any other part of the body, or the 

 cellular membrane of any part, or in the spinal canal. In most 

 of the j^ost-mortem examinations which I have seen made, there 



