THE DISEASES OF CATTLE. 263 



him of what, had it been otherwise, must have been a burden, 

 and would have required powerful muscles to support the head. 



The bones about the head are divided into two plates, sep- 

 arated by numerous vacuities or cells ; but, unlike those of 

 the horse, they extend through the whole of the bone, nay 

 penetrate even through the parietal and occipital bones (see 

 cut p. 258). 



Hence it happens that the frontal sinuses (so these cavities 

 are called in cattle, as well as the horse) extend from the angle 

 of the eye to the very foramen through which the brain es- 

 capes from the skull, nay, to the very tip of the horn. Hence 

 the parts may be said to be hollow ; and it is well that every 

 farmer should know this, for some suppose them solid, and are 

 very much surprised to find them hollow. On making a sec- 

 tion of the horn, from tip to base, it will be found partly hollow, 

 " having sinuses that extend almost to its tip." 



The lymphy and purulent matter found within the frontal 

 sinuses and those of the horn, together with the softening of 

 one hemisphere . of the brain, proved that the parts were all 

 involved in disease ; but then the disease never had its origin 

 in the horn. The brain, or perhaps its membranes, were the 

 primary seat of the affection, and, after softening, decomposing, 

 involved the surrounding parts in ruin. "The other half of 

 the brain was not softened, but the vessels were full of blood, 

 and the membranes exhibited signs of intense inflammation.'* 

 Probably this was the state of affairs in the diseased hemis- 

 phere, in its early stage, and some physical impediments to ihe 

 return of blood from the brain had induced cerebral apoplexy. 

 The animal was in a plethoric state, " very fat." TJiere was 

 too great redundancy of blood — just the subject for such dis- 

 ease. Softening of the brain, I think, would be a better des- 

 ignation of the disease than " horn-ail." 



The editor of the Planter ^ in a subsequent number of his 

 journal, remarks, "The notion that this disease originates in 

 the horn itself, seems to us to be an error, resulting from that 

 backward mode of reasoning which confounds symptoms with 

 disease. The disorder in that organ, ' the horn,' should rather 



