LITHOTOMY IN A MARE, &c. 497 
appearance exhibited was a small tea-spoonful of muddy serum 
pressing on the origin of the optic nerves. 
The symptoms of the case could now be in great measure ac- 
counted for — death, of course, was occasioned by the large escape 
of blood into the abdominal cavity — the loss of substance on the 
wounded knee was probably produced by large effusion of blood 
exhausting the system, but which did not, probably, break through 
the investment of the liver. The weakness of the blood and its 
superabundance of serum is what we might expect to find after 
large losses of blood, the deficiency thereby created being made up 
by serous absorption ; and this would induce the supposition, that 
these hemorrhages had been various and repeated. The amau- 
rosis, too, was probably produced by the pressure of serum on the 
origin of the optic nerves* ; and we know that serous effusion is 
the frequent consequence of extensive loss of blood. 
The most extraordinary part of the case, however, and of greatest 
practical importance is, that, with this extensively disorganized 
liver, which must have been of considerable standing, the horse 
should, up to a few days prior to his death, have been apparently 
in excellent health and spirits, though he was nearly twenty years 
old, abounding with flesh, and, within a fortnight of his death, 
should have travelled a distance of forty miles, at the rate of 
eight miles an hour, without distress or difficulty. 
LITHOTOMY IN A MARE— SACCULATION OF THE 
STONE. 
From Mr. Robert Read, V.S., Crediton . 
July 1s£,1842. — I was requested to attend a valuable thorough- 
bred brood mare that had laboured under an incontinence of 
urine during the last six months. 
She exhibited the following symptoms. A continued dribbling 
of urine down the thighs, which were much excoriated ; the blach- 
der only capable of retaining a few ounces of urine, which was 
discharged with difficulty and pain, and the loss of ejectile 
power — the orifice of the vagina everted and excoriated — the 
* In ascribing’ the amaurosis to the pressure of fluid on the origin of the 
optic nerves, I do so with much reservation, as it may be owing to these 
nerves, in common with the rest of the brain, being deprived of the neces- 
sary and accustomed stimulus, from the diminution in the quantity of vital 
fluid, or the impoverishment of its quality; and this view would be rather 
supported by the other cephalic symptoms manifested, and by the fact that 
amaurosis is not an unusual symptom of considerable haemorrhage. Not- 
withstanding this, the existence of the fluid must not be lost sight of. 
VOL. xv. 3 x 
