44 STRICTURE OF THE RECTUM, & c. IN A MARE. 
of the colon full of liquid faeces, proving that, could a passage for 
them have been obtained, profuse catharsis must have speedily 
ensued. Rectal division of the colon and rectum itself, for the 
extent of several feet, filled with knobs of dung, not hard in con- 
sistence, but looking as if they were packed or wedged in their 
cells or recesses ; and this long line of solid dung, caused, as it 
appeared, by a partial stricture about three feet removed from the 
anus, no doubt proved the impediment to the action of the bowels. 
The stricture itself occupied a space of about six inches, and con- 
sisted of contraction and thickening of the coats of the gut, with a 
rugose condition of the lining membrane. 
The BLADDER shewed reddening and alteration of structure 
internally, and its muscular coat thickened and strongly fibred 
from some former inflammation about it. The mare for some years 
past had been known to have an irritable bladder. 
Four Melanotic Tumours were discovered upon the psose 
muscles, embedded in cellular membrane between them and the pe- 
ritoneum. The largest was oblong, and about the size of a goose- 
egg ; another was smaller and flattened ; the two remaining were 
round and of the magnitude of horse-chestnuts. They had the 
usual uniform black aspect inside and outside, and left an inky 
stain upon the knives used in making sections of them. When 
we came to examine the anus, we found it encircled by puffy swell- 
ings which had not been observed before, but which were now 
found to be melanotic. 
The Brain became an object of some interest in out post-mortem 
inquiries, from the circumstance of the mare having been, some 
four or five years before her death, so subject to attacks of me- 
grims, that on one occasion even her death was apprehended ; and 
when she recovered from her supposed predisposition to relapses, 
advice was given to send her for sale. On referring to my case- 
book, I find she was admitted into the infirmary for megrims in 
May 1838, and in July, and again in October, in 1839; since 
which she has remained free from any relapse — has been in per- 
fect health, indeed. The substance of the brain was remarkably 
firm, and everywhere, when cut, shewed red spots, indicating, 
if not actual inflammation, a highly vascular state of the organ. 
What, however, most attracted our notice, from its singularity — 
for I never myself saw an instance of it before — was the formation 
of a serous abscess within the substance of the pineal gland ; this 
body was nearly double its usual size, and, on being cut into, 
emitted with considerable force an aqueous fluid, which, from the 
drop that remained behind, appeared of the nature of serum. 
Whether or not there be on record any case of the like description 
