452 
PARALYSIS IN A DRAUGHT MARE. 
among most kinds of domesticated animals, and taken as 
much notice of them as any one, during the last fourteen or 
fifteen years, but I never saw a case of this description to so 
great an extent before. 
PARALYSIS IN A DRAUGHT MARE. 
By the Same. 
August , 1855. — A messenger called at my residence to 
request me to visit a mare belonging to a person living near 
at hand; but as I was from home, he left word that the 
animal had had an attack of colic, and was then very ill. I 
did not return until the next day, when I went to see the 
case. The subject of the attack was a cart-mare, in high 
condition, about nine or ten years old ; she had had one or 
two foals in previous years, but was now barren. Upon exa- 
mining her, I found she was suffering from paralysis. She 
had great difficulty in walking, rolling about from side to side, 
and sometimes tumbling down. The brain was not sensibly 
affected. The eyes were clear looking, and the iris acted to 
the stimulus of light. The sense of smell was likewise 
unaffected, as she could detect deleterious from good food. 
Her appetite also w 7 as not deranged. 
This case originated spontaneously. The animal had 
been at w ork the day before, and was found in the state I 
have described when the man w T ent to fetch her to go to 
work on the following morning. The patient being in a 
plethoric condition, combined with the suddenness of the 
attack, led me to conclude I had to deal with a case of 
effusion into the spinal canal; the treatment was therefore 
commenced by the use of a powerful counter-irritant to the 
poll and along the back, and the exhibition of a full dose ef 
cathartic medicine, to which the bowels responded in due 
time. These measures were succeeded by occasional doses of 
calomel, or the iodide of sulphur. The treatment was pur- 
sued for about five or six weeks, W'ith, however, but little 
benefit. From this time I heard no more of the case until 
May last, when I was informed that the mare was even 
then in the same state as when I left her. From w hat I have 
stated, it may be, I think, safely inferred, that the affection 
involved the motor nerves more than the sentient, and that 
it originated in the spinal cord. 
