438 
AMPUTATION OT THE PENIS OF A HORSE, 
ture in this interesting case ; the occasional pain and restlessness, 
indicated by lying down and rolling, alternating with intervals of 
apparent ease — not the slightest perspiration — neither a laboured 
nor hurried respiration — no unusual attitude — nothing, in short, to 
indicate a fatal and rapid disease, except a full, hard, quick pulse, 
which lost its tone on the abstraction of less than three quarts of 
blood, retaining its rapidity alone to the last. 
Although this case, from its very rare occurrence, may be of 
little value to us in a practical point of view, it will, at any rate, 
go far to correct the narrow limits we are but too much inclined to 
place on the capabilities and resources of nature. If any one had 
asserted his belief in the possibility of an animal’s working for a 
year and a half with a portion of intestine lying in his chest with- 
out producing positive proof of the probability of the conjecture, he 
would inevitably have been laughed at. Place the simple fact on 
record, and the laughter is exchanged for half incredulous wonder 
and surprise. The old criterion of wisdom, that of doubting every 
assertion that cannot be proved, is being fast superseded by the 
more modern and liberal one of believing every thing that cannot 
be disproved. This I believe to be the true one; and it will always 
be found that it is the practical man that is the tolerant one, as 
he has learnt what nothing but experience will teach, — that na- 
ture is all-powerful, and that it is his own narrow and circum- 
scribed ideas alone that prevent his placing implicit confidence in 
her resources, until, every now and then, a case such as the preced- 
ing one recalls to his mind the fallacy of his laying down rules to 
guide a power too great for him even to comprehend. 
CASE OF AMPUTATION OF THE PENIS OF A HORSE. 
By R. W. Dyer, Jersey. 
On Tuesday, the 1st of July instant, I was requested to go into 
the country in company with a French practitioner, to see a horse, 
the property of a farmer, labouring under disease of the glans 
penis. 
On entering into conversation with the owner, he expressed his 
intention of having the animal destroyed, as advised by the person 
who attended him ; however, after examination, I informed him 
that something could be done to save the life of his horse, which 
he readily acceded to. 
The horse was bought about twelve months since apparently 
sound : after a few days the present owner discovered a discharge 
