FRACTURE OF THE PUBIS. 
69 
thrown himself down with violence, and that he thought he 
had hurt himself, as he walked to the hospital lame of one 
hind leg. The horse was lying on his side, stretched out, 
heaving laborious^, and groaning with pain. The extremi- 
ties were cold, and the pulse scarcely perceptible. From the 
general symptoms, I suspected that a rupture of the liver or 
diaphragm, accompanied with internal hemorrhage, had taken 
place. I, however, resolved to give trial to a bloodletting, 
but, before a quart of blood hacl been lost, a cold perspira- 
tion broke out all over the body, the pulse at the submax- 
illary artery became totally indistinct, and although the 
bleeding was stopped immediately, he died within a few 
minutes. 
The post-mortem examination showed a fracture of the 
symphysis pubis and ilium. The bladder was also torn in 
shreds by the broken ends of the bones, and the pelvis was 
full of blood. 
I learnt afterwards that the horse was exceedingly timid at 
his pickets, and frequently in the habit of running back and 
throwing himself down. Such doubtless had been the case 
in the present instance, and the fracture was the consequence. 
The picket lines of the troop are about two or three hundred 
yards from the hospital lines ; the laceration of the bladder, 
therefore, is not surprising ; but how he walked so far with 
such extensive fractures, appears almost miraculous. 
Case £.—In July last, I was sent for about midday by 
Capt. Beresford, A.D.C. to the General commanding the 
Mysore Division, to see a horse under his charge, the pro- 
perty of his Excellency the Commander-in-Chief, said to be 
suffering from colic. 
On my reaching the stable, I found the horse stretched at 
full length on his side, breathing laboriously. The pulse at the 
jaw was imperceptible, a cold and profuse sweat bedewed the 
body, the legs were icy cold, and so also was the breath. In 
short, the animal was dying from internal hemorrhage, and 
did not live more than five minutes after my arrival. 
Post-mortem . — On opening the abdomen it was found 
filled with blood from a laceration of the large vessels of the 
pubis ; the bones being, as in the former instance, fractured. 
The history of the case is this. The horse was sent to a 
farrier in the neighbourhood to be shod ; something alarmed 
him, and he snatched his foot from the man’s hands, and ran 
backwards, till he came to the full extent of his heel ropes, when 
a sudden check being given to his retrograde movement, he 
threw himself violently on his haunches, and in endeavouring 
