70 
ANIMAL PATHOLOGY. 
they have been studded with tubercles — hard concretions have 
been found upon them, and at some point or other the membranes 
of the chord have been considerably dilated, the substance of the 
chord has been softened. In the cow that was paralytic 
eighteen months the spinal marrow belonging to the four last 
dorsal vertebrae and the whole of the lumbar ones was softened ; 
it was mixed with bloody decomposed matter, and surrounded by 
a thick yellow serosity. 
Generally the affection is confined to the motor surface. The 
difference between the inferior (anterior) and the superior 
(posterior) surfaces of the chord, and of the membranes covering 
those surfaces, is very remarkable. Perhaps the horizontal posi- 
tion of the chord in the quadruped may, in some measure, 
account for this. In some cases, however, the whole of the 
chord will be similarly affected. I have often inquired of the 
butcher, when I could get him to put confidence in me with 
regard to these things, and the answer l have received has 
been, that he does not recollect a case in which the “pith” has 
not been more or less affected, and sometimes he has been com- 
pelled to remove it, or a part of it, from the spine, before he 
could expose the meat for sale. 
Occasionally there is much infiltration of the muscles of the 
loins and thighs, with effusion of bloody fluid into the abdomen ; 
and occasionally there are bony enlargements of the vertebrae, or 
scirrhous tumours attached to them, which sufficiently account 
for the impairment or loss of voluntary motion. 
Consultation. — Here, gentlemen, you will not forget the kind 
of animal you have to do with, and the destiny of that animal. 
Sooner or later he must find his way to the butcher, and the 
profit of the master depends upon the condition in which the 
animal reaches that bourne. It will make but the difference of 
a few shillings whether the horse arrives at the knacker’s yard 
covered with flesh and fat, or reduced almost to a skeleton, and, 
therefore, unless the manifest sufferings of the animal warn you 
to desist, you protract your attendance almost to the last moment, 
hoping for some favourable change which may enable you to 
restore you patient to his owner once more fit for his service. 
It is a very different matter here. If the beast is in tolerable con- 
dition, it will not much concern the owner if the final disposal 
of him is somewhat hastened ; but if the disease, as in the pre- 
sent case, is one that interferes not with the wholesomeness or the 
saleableness of the meat, it will be of considerable consequence 
to the proprietor, whether the patient is at once disposed of, or 
kept lingering on until there is little flesh left upon its bones, 
and that little good for nothing. You will, therefore, most care- 
