3 7 
Contemporary Progress of Veterinary Science 
and Art, 
By John Gamgee, M.R.C.V.S., 
Lecturer on Veterinary Medicine and Surgery, London. 
{Continued from p. 701.) 
Incomplete dislocation of the occipito-atloidean 
articulation in a Mule.- — A three-year old mule was, 
after work, set free in a shed ; an hour later, she was found 
motionless, with depressed and outstretched head, standing 
at a distance from the other animals. Vives, V. S. at Cam- 
pa gne, was called, and he found that the head could not be 
elevated beyond its natural height. If any attempt was 
made to raise it further, great pain was evinced; the animal 
backed and fell. Great sensibility of neck, swelling and 
remarkably oblique position of occiput, whereby the head 
was turned to the left. The mule was dull, looked as if stu- 
pified ; pulse slightly frequent, and the eyes injected. The 
diagnosis was — dislocation of the atlas at the occipito- 
atloidean articulation. Another veterinary surgeon supported 
Vives in his opinion. 
The following day the pulse and breathing were more 
rapid, the eyes half closed, the neck still more swollen, and 
the animal more feeble in the loins. 
The treatment consisted in bloodletting, and emollient 
fomentations to the neck, in virtue of which the general con- 
dition of the patient ameliorated, but the dislocation remained 
the same. Eight days after, with the exception of weakness 
of the left hind limb, there w T as only observable the sunken 
and outstretched position of the head, with deviation to the 
left. A strong ointment, rubbed over the neck, induced some 
improvement, excepting in the position of the head, which, 
thirty-five days after the accident, was much the same. 
Vives did not at first wish to reduce the dislocation ; and it 
appears the proprietor of the animal w r as contrary to it; they 
w r aited to see w r hat might follow. 
It was doubted if such a dislocation could exist without 
paralysis. — Journ. des Vet. du Midi , September, 1854. 
In the month of June for this year, M. Vives w r rites again, 
to inform us that the mule continues in the very same state, 
never having shown symptoms of compression, such as 
paralysis, &c. Vives says, it has generally been supported 
that displacement of the articulations of the vertebrae cannot 
