522 PROGRESS OF VETERINARY SCIENCE AND ART. 
passages. In either case, a course of acids, by giving tone 
to the system, it may be anticipated, will be productive of 
good. Should there, however, be any spinal lesion, whence 
also may arise phosphatic urine, then the utility of acids may 
be questioned, as they will merely dissolve the phosphates 
without removing the cause of their deposition. All this 
Mr. Lewis will inquire into, and perhaps he will favour us 
with the result.] 
Contemporary Progress of Veterinary Science 
and Art. 
By John Gamgee, M.R.C.V.S., 
Professor of Anatomy and Physiology in the Edinburgh 
Veterinary College. 
{Continued from p. 453.) 
Rupture of the Liver.— On the 16 th day of June, 
1855, a light-harness mare, eight years old, was admitted into 
the Lyons School, having been visited the day before as an 
out-door patient for a slight cough, symptoms of which had 
existed for a fortnight. The cause of her being brought to 
the infirmary was that, on being driven from St. Priest to 
Lyons, she gave evidence of great fatigue, so as to render it 
almost impossible to continue the journey. On being admitted 
into the college, at half-past eleven a.m., the symptoms were 
prostration, eyes fixed, awkward gait, the whole body cold 
and the loins rigid, the pulse 90 per minute, soft and 
small in character; respiration accelerated, and the flanks’ 
movements jerking and abrupt, the visible mucous membranes 
pale, no abnormal sounds heard on auscultation ; the digestive 
system appeared undisturbed, and the animal was in remark- 
ably good condition. The diagnosis was doubtful ; prognosis 
unfavorable ; and the treatment at the time consisted in an 
electuary containing digitalis. The mare was warmly clothed. 
Shortly after being placed in a stall, she pulled on her 
halter and remained motionless for an hour; twitching of the 
facial muscles supervened and cold sweats bedewed the body, 
continued tremor of the haunch and neck was observed, 
pulse feeble and 110 per minute, heart’s action quick and 
strong. In from one to two hours stupor and relaxation of 
the muscles occurred, the lips hung loosely down, and the 
upper lid dropped over the eye. She died at a quarter-past 
two p.m., having fallen twice and suffered from convulsive 
