234 Diseases of iJie Nervous System. 



is slowly performed, pulse small, rapid, and feeble \ eye- 

 lids separated, pupils contracted as a rule, but insensible 

 to the stimulus of light. Sensation slowly returns, and 

 the patient usually vomits ; the movements in progres- 

 sion are deliberate and dreamy, the head is carried below 

 the level of the spine, and the animal moves in an 

 uncertain way reeling or falling against objects, having 

 no power to avoid them. 



Recent Compression is indicated by the existence of 

 fracture of the bones of the skull, the plates of which are 

 depressed upon the brain substance. InsensibiUty is 

 partial or complete according to the extent of the injury ; 

 respiration slow, oppressed, and noisy ; the pulse also 

 slow, and probably intermittent ; eyelids separated, 

 pupils dilated and unaffected by light ; the whole 

 muscular system is relaxed; thus, the limbs are subject 

 to no control, but lie as when the animal fell to the 

 ground, and both urine and faeces are voided without 

 effort. 



Apoplexy from injury to the head is due to compres- 

 sion by the bones of the cranium, and, as in the ordinary 

 form, spontaneous recovery of consciousness may result 

 from the brain accommodating itself to the situation; 

 but the recovery is attended with unequal power in pro- 

 gression, the animal always moving to the right or left as 

 the position of the injured parts will indicate. 



In these cases the animal gradually acquires conscious- 

 ness, and with it the liability to Encephalitis^ or an 

 inflammatory condition of the coverings of the brain, 

 otherwise known as Meni^tgitis, which is indicated by 

 unusual excitement and probably convulsions, terminat- 

 ing in insensibility, paralysis, and death, according to the 

 extent to which the organs are involved. The animal 

 should, therefore, be kept perfectly quiet throughvout the 

 apoplectic stages, frequent applications of cold water to 

 the head being desirable. Blood-letting by leeches, or 

 the usual method, may be adopted, and the dormant 

 powers restored by small and frequent doses of liquor 

 ammonia. The injured cranium must also receive atten- 

 tion by the attendant surgeon, appropriate after-treatment 



