292 
EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS. 
place in the substance and texture of the membrane which always 
denote chronicity or length of standing of disease. The pleura be- 
comes thickened and indurated, and turns to an opaque white in 
colour ; and when coagula are present, they are very apt to take on 
some such change as we behold in the membrane itself, and while 
they evince extraordinary toughness, frequently display consider- 
able vascularity. 
These summary observations on the morbid changes in the 
pleural membrane — changes which are so very common in the con- 
tinually recurring diseases of the chest in horses — it is hoped, 
familiar as they are to most of us, yet may serve young practi- 
tioners as guides, if not to the exact truth in point of the time of 
their occurrence or duration — at least to direct them out of the way 
of such gross and unpardonable error as has but too often found its 
way into the witness-box on the occasion of a horse cause. We 
wished to have wound up this interesting inquiry in our present 
Number: we find, however, we must still devote another article to 
it, to examine the progressive changes the lungs undergo in dis- 
eases of the chest in horses. 
The SPAYING — or as the French have denominated it, the cas- 
tration — of cows, is an operation to which our attention is called 
afresh by an article in the Recueil de Med. Vet. for December 
1849, now lying upon our table, confirmatory of one which appeared, 
we understand, manj' years back, in the same journal ; we believe, 
from the pen of the instigator of the operation itself, M. Charlier. 
There is likewise a report of the same operation translated from 
the Recueil into The VETERINARIAN for July 1848*. The 
subject is new to us, though not less interesting than to our French 
colleagues: at least, we have never heard of such a proceeding in 
any part of Britain; notwithstanding the Mayor of Brognon — in 
the article on the subject we have transcribed into our pages this 
month — has it that we are in the habit of practising spaying — as 
well as castration — in order to render our beefsteaks and roast beef 
tender and flavorous. Nevertheless, and especially as M. Le Maire 
gives us English the credit de savoir profiter de tout , we are not 
only by no means unwilling, but feel even very anxious to know 
the secret of augmenting and enriching the quantity of milk our 
* Also in vols. vii, viii, and xi, of The Veterinarian. 
