SINGULAR CASE OF PSOAS ABSCESS IN A MAKE 91 
thin, and the mare was drooping and short of milk. Her pulse 
was very full, and 60. There was evident constitutional disturb- 
ance, for which we were at a loss to account. She was out at 
grass, and very little was done to her with the exception of bleed- 
ing and the administration of a cathartic. 
Very little change took place for nearly a fortnight, when a 
swelling shewed itself over the loins on the near side, and which 
continued to increase for several weeks, while the milk became so 
diminished in quantity that the foal was obliged to be supported 
by other means. 
With the assistance of fomentations and embrocations the swell- 
ing was brought to suppuration, and evidently pointed. An in- 
cision being made, an immense quantity of thick inspissated pus 
was evacuated, and which kept up a continual flow as from 
a fountain, in spite of all injections or any other means we 
could adopt. At length I determined to trace, if I could, the 
direction and depth of the sinus, and I found that it came from 
between the transverse processes of the lumbar vertebrae. 
This left no doubt on our minds of its being a psoas or lumbar 
abscess ; and, accordingly, as all our patience, and our patient 
too, were nearly exhausted, we advised her being destroyed. 
The post-mortem examination displayed to our view three large 
abscesses situated in the psoae muscles — one on each side the 
spine, and the other extending to the insertion of the psoas mag- 
num beneath the diaphragm ; all communicating one with the 
other, and discharging their contents through the sinus above de- 
scribed. 
The pathological view we took of the case was this : The mag- 
nitude of the abscesses, and their tough and thick coverings, con- 
nected with the old cicatrized wounds on the loins, seem very con- 
clusive of the existence of the abscesses prior to the mare being 
in foal, and that during the period of gestation their growth be- 
came suspended, and the wound healed ; but after parturition the 
abscesses again resumed their action, and discharged their con- 
tents as above described. This would shew the incapacity of the 
system to support two distinct morbid actions at the same time. 
