120 COMPTE RENDU OF THE ALFORT SCHOOL 
covered with cataplasms slightly stimulant. We endeavoured to 
remove the constipation, tension, and tenderness of the belly by 
means of enemas, fomentations, and mucilaginous drinks. At 
night a cold swelling commenced around the wound, and extended 
to the quarters and the thighs. It was evident that gangrene had 
taken place, and the horse died in the night. We were afterwards 
told that, in going down a hill, the machine which is placed behind 
the wheels in order to retard the descent of the carriage having 
broken, the horse was thrown down, and violently struck on the 
croup by one of the pieces of iron belonging to the machine, and 
that this had caused the wound. On opening the carcass, we dis- 
covered that this piece of iron, after having perforated almost 
perpendicularly the skin and the muscles of the thigh, had struck 
the surface of the ileum about two inches from its anterior border, 
and had made a depression in its external table, more than two 
lines in depth, as if it had been struck by a musket ball. The 
peritoneum was reddened through a considerable extent, and the 
abdominal cavity contained twenty-three or twenty-four pounds of 
blood. 
On the 16th of December, 1837, a strong draught-horse, six 
years old, was brought to us from the country, having the whole 
of the muzzle and lower part of the head of a red-brown colour , 
swelled, and evidently very painful. The tumefaction, most evi- 
dent at the nostrils, had closed and deprived them of motion ; and 
so great was the enlargement of the lips, that the mouth was half 
open, the tongue hanging out, of a red colour, and motionless. We 
were informed that this horse, labouring under coryza, was ordered 
to be submitted to hot emollient fomentations; but the animal, 
thinking that something to drink was offered to him, plunged the 
lower part of his head into the liquid at an almost boiling heat. 
The consequence appeared, at first, to be so serious, that they feared 
with regard to the life of the animal ; and, in fact, the swelling of 
the nostrils produced extreme difficulty of breathing, while that of 
the lips and of the tongue prevented, during several days, its taking 
any aliment. We could not even make injections of farinaceous 
liquids into the mouth, for the least contact of the canula with the 
scalded surfaces caused extreme pain. We combatted this sad 
scalding by extensive scarifications on the alae of the nose, and on 
the lips and the tongue, which produced a plentiful sanguineous 
discharge. Lotions of cold water, acidulated with vinegar, were 
employed as sedative refrigerants ; and to these succeeded a decoc- 
tion of sedative plants. On the fourth day we could insinuate into 
the mouth, by means of the space between the tushes and the 
grinders, some crumb of bread, or oat or other meal, mixed with 
water or soup. On the eighteenth day, the animal began to feed 
