85 
A PECULIAR AFFECTION IN THE HORSE, CHARAC- 
TERIZED BY THE COAGULATION AND TRANS- 
FORMATION OF THE BLOOD INTO FIBRINOUS 
CLOTS. 
By M. RAYNAL, M. V. 1st Lancers. 
The Essay which, bearing this incomplete title, M. Damalix and 
myself venture to lay before the public, merits, under more rela- 
tions than one, the attention of veterinary surgeons and medical 
men. It is not only destined to enrich science with one of those 
extraordinary cases of which nature is sparing, but, seriously con- 
sidered, it will serve, as we hope, in proper time and place, to 
clear up some portion of the obscurity of pathology — to furnish some 
more exact date in physiology, and to destroy some errors gene- 
rally admitted as truths, while it may serve to convince those who 
yet entertain some doubt of the primitive lesions of the circulatory 
fluid. 
The subject of this case is a saddle-mare, twelve years old, of a 
nervous temperament and constitution. 
It was about two years ago that she was first attacked, without 
any known cause, with an affection, the symptoms of which were 
so vague, that M. Damalix was unable to recognize either its na- 
ture or its seat : it yielded, however, to an antiphlogistic and revul- 
sive course of medicine. 
From that time until the end of 1839 she appeared to enjoy 
perfect health, except that the cavalier who rode her found it im- 
possible to make her go in a straight line, or to turn to the right : 
she was therefore ordered to be discharged. During the interval 
of five months which necessarily intervened, she was fed highly, 
and submitted only to very moderate exercise. Towards the mid- 
dle of March she was become so fat, that we recommended half 
of her hay and oats to be taken away, and its place supplied 
with mashes and gruel. At the end of that month — fifteen days 
since the first change in her keep and treatment — she had lost so 
much flesh, that the man who fed her took notice of it. Her 
skin, likewise, was dry, and adherent to the parts beneath. All 
these circumstances were attributed to the regimen which we had 
adopted in order to diminish her state of plethora ; and we were the 
more confirmed in this opinion by the officers who had ridden her on 
the two preceding weeks not perceiving that any thing was amiss 
with her. However, from this time, she became a subject of ob- 
servation with us, 
VOL. XVII. 
M 
