202 FATAL CASE OF PROSTRATION OR COLLAPSE. 
and was frothing at the mouth ; the breathing as before, not 
altered ; there appearing to be total suspension of the powers 
of the intercostal muscles, from paralysis of the nerves sup- 
plying those muscles with aid to assist respiration ; and all 
along this duty towards nature was performed by the dia- 
phragm only. The existence of pain was manifest : he was 
placed in a correct position, and conjecturing that, from his not 
having passed any urinal evacuations for three days, the pos- 
sibility might be, that to a certain extent this might be caused 
by retention of urine in the bladder ; I accordingly passed a 
catheter, but without inducing any discharge of that fluid. 
The pulse was slightly fuller, but this might be accounted for 
from his recumbent posture. I had his jugular vein opened, 
and extracted about lbs. viij of blood, which proved of a 
thick consistency, and immediately coagulated, forming a 
very thick buffy coat. This w as all he could afford to lose. 
No single step towards reaction w^as made until after another 
draught w as administered, and that only produced a tempo- 
rary brilliancy of the eye, w hich was of short duration. He 
had completely lost all pow r er of use over the extremities. 
4, p. m. — I visited him for the last time, and he appeared 
within a few hours of dissolution ; the eyes w ere becoming 
glazed, and a particular action of the chest, w hich I have 
never before witnessed in the horse — a kind of diaphragmatic 
action resembling hiccough, distressing, to all appearance, but 
to which I believe him to have been either perfectly insensible, 
or to have been deprived of the nervo-muscular pow 7 er of ex- 
hibiting it : the latter, in my opinion, is the more probable. 
As death appeared so near approaching, and taking into con- 
sideration the period that had^elapsed since the injury, and 
the slightest symptom of reaction or recovery so totally hope- 
less, I suggested to its owrner its destruction, for the sake of 
humanity, which w^as immediately carried into effect, through 
the medium of a musket. Death, or apparent death, was 
instantaneous : he relinquished life without the effort of a 
struggle ; thus evincing that the motor portion of the nervous 
system had received the greater part of the violence of the 
shock. 
Sectio cadaveris , 20 hours after death . 
External appearances . — The body having been stripped of 
its natural covering, the skin, in external appearance pre- 
sented no indentation, appearance of fracture, bruises, or 
the consequent result of effusion into the cellular tissue, more 
particularly at the point of the sternum, the part that first 
received the blow T , or any other visible irregularity. 
Thoracic cavity.— Lungs unusually sound, no traces even of 
