132 
DISLOCATION 
for the dreadful sufferings which the miserable patient underwent, 
we should smile at our friend’s strange and egregious blunders. 
There is scarcely a pupil who will not understand the case in a 
moment ; but it puzzled the old practitioner for many a week. 
“ I have sent you a case,” says my correspondent, “ which, if 
you should think it worth a place in your Journal, is at your disposal. 
The patient was a young brown mare, half-bred, the property of 
my father. On arriving on the 18th of January, I found that the 
groom, on his first going into the stable on the 8th of the same 
month, found her unable to move her near hind leg. To use his 
own expression, ‘ It was as stiff as a gate-post.’ My father went 
immediately into the stable and examined her. The pulse was 35. 
There was every appearance of health, with the exception of a 
little constipation of the bowels. He examined the limb minutely. 
There was no swelling, no tenderness, no wound, no bruise. The 
limb had the sensation of feeling as perfect as either of the other 
extremities. She could stand on it when put under her, as well 
as on the other, and appeared to suffer little or no pain ; but she 
was unable to move it in any way. 
“ Bleeding and purging were had recourse to, and, afterwards, 
diuretic and sedative medicines were employed, and the limb was 
embrocated with stimulating oils. 
“ I found the pulse 36 ; the faeces soluble, and the appetite good. 
A rowel had been inserted, two days before, on the inside of the 
tibia. There was now tenderness to the touch, and a little swelling 
round the stifle. As influenza was among the other horses in the 
stable, and her coat looked pen-feathery, I had her clothed from 
head to foot, and gave her a decoction of rue and wormwood, to cause 
perspiration. I also ordered two drachms of powdered gentian 
and an ounce of spirit of nitrous ether to be given daily; and 
directed a fomentation of poppy heads and an embrocation of the 
camphorated liniment to be applied to the stiff limb. 
“ My patient was fourteen miles from my residence : I therefore 
did not see her again until the 25th. She was no better. The 
pulse 38. The leg, in consequence of the rowel, was swelled 
down to the very foot, and was become painful to the touch. The 
rowel discharged well. Another physic ball was given, and the 
fomentations and embrocation were ordered to be continued. 
