PERFORATION OF THE SCULL. 191 
and leave to more accurate observers the improvement of the symp- 
tomatology and diagnosis. 
About fifteen years ago I was called to a two-year-old long- 
horned heifer, belonging to a shepherd, who had recognized in her 
the gradual development of “ sturdy.” She moved unsteadily, in 
a circular direction. After raising a flap of skin, I made a perfo- 
ration through one of the frontal bones with a gimblet, introduced a 
quill cut off at both ends, and at length succeeded in drawing off 
perhaps three ounces of fluid. The flap was then put down 
and secured with pitch, and advice given to the owner to push 
her into condition, if, fortunately, she recovered from the opera- 
tion. 
Ten or twelve months afterwards her sight became impaired, 
and she shewed other signs of a return of the disease, when she 
was profitably consigned to the butcher. 
The next case was a calf, a few weeks old, that was unable to 
rise or stand. After withdrawing a fluid from the cranial cavity 
by a similar process, the animal regained the use of its limbs, but 
the amendment was only temporary : in a few days the palsy 
recurred, and the calf died. 
The third was an older calf : the chief symptom was partial 
palsy. In this instance I used the trephine, took out a piece of 
bone, and carefully divided the membrane ; but no water or cyst 
was found. The operation was not followed by any serious symp- 
toms; and, some time afterwards, despairing of recovery, the 
animal was killed, and the water found in or upon the posterior 
part of the brain. 
On the 2*2d of February 1845, assisted by my friend Mr. J. 
Younghusband, I undertook to operate on a two-year-old heifer that 
had been unwell since it was a calf. It was in low condition, fed 
badly, and its locomotive and visual powers were much impaired. 
An elastic projection of the right frontal bone was detected. We 
cast and secured the beast, dissected up and turned over on its at- 
tached short diameter a semi-elliptical flap of skin, and then, cut- 
ting the attenuated bone with a scalpel, turned up a like flap of it 
of less size in the same way. We next divided the dura mater 
without finding any fluid. A grooved staff was then passed, almost 
without resistance, to some depth in the direction of the lateral 
ventricle, but nothing escaped. 
Almost despairing of success, a silver catheter was now pushed 
about H inch in the same direction, when suddenly a clear liquid 
burst through it with much force, and that force appeared to be 
kept up by partially obstructing the expirations. It was not until 
most of the fluid (not less than eight ounces) was discharged, that 
suffering was betrayed: then, indeed, it was much distressed. 
