384 



F(ETAL DYSTOKIA. 



and a quarter litres — the largest quantity he had met with. Drouard, 

 however, in 1842, published the details of a case of a Foal whose cranium 

 held four and a half litres (about eight imperial pints). 



Fig. 98 represents a Foal's skull, now in the museum of the Lyons 

 Veterinary School, and which, from its dimensions, Saint-Cyr calculates 

 to have contained eight litres (about thirteen pints). Kopp not long 

 since exhibited the head of a Foal before the Veterinary Society of 

 Alsace, the diameter of the dropsical cranium of which was fourteen 

 inches, and which, it was computed, would contain about twelve litres 

 of fluid (more than two and a half gallons). And Quesnel has also 

 shown a skull of about the same dimensions, to the Veterinary Society 

 of Calvados et de la Manche. 



Mr. Olver^ describes the cranium of a hydrocephalic Foal which 

 measured thirty-six inches in circumference, ten inches from one orbit 

 to the other, and twenty-seven inches from the occipital crest to the 

 nasal bones. At least twelve pints of fluid were contained in the cavity, 

 and the cerebral substance remaining was quite disorganised, the dura 



Fig. 99. 

 Calf affected with Hydeockphalus : its Skull is kepresknted in Fig. 97. 



mater being much thickened. The cranial cavity was almost wholly 

 surrounded by bone ; the only portion which was only enclosed by skin 

 was a space about four inches in circumference at the top. 



In the Museum of the Munich Veterinary School is a skull, the 

 cranium of which measures nine by eleven inches in diameter. 



Professor Lombardini- speaks of the head of a Calf, the cranium of 

 which was more than fourteen inches high ; it was eight and a half 

 inches long, and four and a half broad. This Calf, with two others — 

 well formed — was aborted at six months, without any injury to the Cow 

 which was six years old. There can be no doubt that if the full period 

 of pregnancy had been reached, this Calf would have proved trouble- 

 some to extract. 



But these latter are quite exceptional instances, and are three 

 four times larger than those usually met with. 



^ Veterinarian, 1874, p. 481. 

 " GiornaJt di Veteriaaria, 1873. 



