THE 
VETERINARIAN. 
VOL. IX, No. 101.] MAY 1836. [New Series, No. 41. 
ANIMAL PATHOLOGY. 
By Mr. You att. 
LECTURE V. 
Morbid States of Sensation . 
THE diseases of the nerves of sensation in animals to whom 
nature has denied the.power of speech, and who only by signs, 
comparatively inexpressive, and frequently delusive, can enable 
us to guess at what they suffer, is a subject difficult to treat upon, 
and on which we can scarcely arrive at a satisfactory conclusion. 
I fear, too, that the natural difficulties of such a subject are 
much and disgracefully increased by the inattention of many of 
us to the indications of pleasure and of pain in our quadruped 
patients. In our treatment of disease, and in many of the ope- 
rations which we perform, the value of the animal as the slave 
of man, and the degree in which we can make him, his services 
and his very form, subservient to the caprice of man, — these 
are our primary calculations ; and the enjoyment or the suffering 
of the animal itself are subjects of mere secondary considera- 
i tion ; or, thus far only, taken into the account at all. 
Well, gentlemen, we must take this subject in its turn, not 
deterred by its difficulties, and fully resolved, that even where 
we have so few facts to reason upon, we will not admit one of 
them without sufficient evidence. 
Lesions of the sensitive Nerves . — We have to consider the 
lesions or morbid conditions of the nerves that spring from the 
central columns of the superior (posterior) surface of the spinal 
<^ord, including those of common sensation, multiplied chiefly 
about the skin generally, and those more especially devoted to 
the sense of touch, and accumulated on certain parts only of 
the integument. When we considered the physiology of these 
nerves, an important distinction was drawn between those of 
common sensation and those of touch ; the former being sus- 
vol. ix. i i 
