FRACTURE OF A HORSE’S SKULL BY A FALL. 491 
It appears that this morning the colt-breaker fetched him out of 
the field, and put the tackle on, and brought him to this town 
to be shod ; that, while being shod on the fore feet, he stood per- 
fectly quiet, and there was not the least difficulty in putting the 
shoes on. He then accidentally struck the work-box with one of 
his feet and became frightened, and immediately sprang backwards 
out of the penthouse upon his hind quarters, reared up, and fell over 
with tremendous force, upon the near side of his head, on the 
pavement in the yard. The moment he came in contact with the 
ground a quantity of blood gushed from his nostrils, and it is 
supposed that he lost five or six quarts. I saw him in a few 
minutes after the accident happened, which was about noon. He 
was lying all at length on the pavement, struggling and beating his 
head about with great force. The blood had ceased flowing from 
his nostrils, and none came from his ears. I could not detect the 
least depression on any part of the cranium or face, but there was a 
slight abrasion of hair in one or two places about the orbit. The 
pupils were much dilated. I extracted about four quarts of blood 
from his neck, and had him drawn into the penthouse out of the rain; 
and ordered his head to be occasionally wetted with cold water, and 
to be kept perfectly quiet. 
Two P.M. — He has been struggling two or three times with much 
violence, and once he threw himself over on the other side of his 
body ; sometimes he lay quiet. Respiration natural. 
I put my finger on the cornea, which evidently gave him pain ; 
I also punctured his face in several places with my penknife, 
of which he was susceptible of, but not so in puncturing the side of 
his neck. I gave aloes 3vj, ant. p. t. 3iss, in a drink. 
Six P.M. — Respiration quickened — sighs — struggles violently 
at times with his head and legs. Tremors of the extremities. 
Eight P.M. — Took four quarts more blood. Soon afterward he 
broke out into a violent perspiration. His respiration became sterto- 
rous, and about ten o’clock of the same night he died. 
Examination . — To expose the brain I sawed off the anterior 
surface of the frontal and nasal bones. In doing so the saw passed 
through a portion of the brain and nasal and other sinuses, and 
there issued therefrom a large quantity of blood. I next removed 
the brain, and found between the pia and dura mater a little extra- 
vasated blood, and the brain lacerated in two places by pieces of 
bone that had been forced into it. 
I now observed that the dura mater had, in many places, a very 
dark appearance, and, on separating it from the cranium, I found 
that there was a great extravasation of blood underneath and con- 
tiguous to the ethmoid bone, and also in several other places round 
cavity. 
