FRIGHTFUL FRACTURE OF THE HEAD. 125 
the work of closure. And this has appeared more likely of 
late, from the growth which the skin has made from every point 
of the circumference of the chasm, inwardly, over the margins 
of the wound, creeping along from them upon the septa 
crossing the sinuses wherever their prominences admitted of it. 
In fact, it would now appear as though, some day or other, 
the skin will line such parts of the cavernous hollow as it 
cannot roof over, and in this manner, in the end, heal up and 
cicatrize every part of it; leaving an irregular depression or 
rather cavity in the place where formerly existed the frightful 
lesion. The skin, by clinging, as it is at present doing, to 
every proximate surface upon which it can spread itself, and 
so creeping onward from point to point, puts one very much in 
mind of the ivy in its progress of growth, with a firm adhesion, 
upon the gnarled trunk of some old oak tree ; not only clothing 
its knobs and protuberances, but dipping everywhere into its 
cavities and hollows. No doubt, should ever such hopes be 
realized, the deformity of one side of the face will remain great 
and conspicuous. Still, this will be as nothing compared with 
the restoration of the animal to health and to serviceability. 
And as he is now in the possession of the narrator of his 
singular and interesting case, he may any day be seen by any 
veterinarian who will favour his owner with a call at the 
Regent Park Barracks. Supposing that the parts ever do 
perfectly heal up and cicatrize, it will become a question 
whether the animal’s wind will not suffer more or less from the 
contraction, and probably partial obstruction as well, which is 
evidently taking place in the maxillary, if not in the frontal, 
sinus. 
At the present time, the horse draws and expels his breath 
through the opening ; wherefrom there also issues, occasion- 
ally, flakes of mucous discharge, which accounts, probably, for 
the air expired through it being sometimes tainted to the 
smell. He has not yet been put to any work beyond longeing, 
and being a few times ridden. In his walk ancl trot he is not 
heard to make any roaring noise, further than the occasional 
blowing sound the air makes in rustling through the sinuses and 
out of the wound. The membranous lining of the latter, which 
is very visible through the external opening, varies from time 
to time in its hue ; sometimes, particularly at the time of exer- 
tion, being conspicuously red ; at other times, when not excited 
either by exercise or heat of the stable, being comparatively 
pallid. A pad, by way of guard against foreign intruders, is 
constantly kept upon the aperture. 
