CASE OF A HORSE SWALLOWING SPONGE. 
323 
the case, no mitigation of the symptoms follows the depletion in the 
disease of cerebral abscess, as in cerebritis or meningitis. This 
and the want of intensity in the early symptoms are the most 
prominent features in the diagnostic distinctions between them ; and, 
according to my experience, they are only to be confounded with 
other tumours of the brain. 
The power of locomotion varies according as the functions of 
the brain are impeded or obstructed. There may be falling for- 
ward, or on one side, or a rotatory motion. When the cere- 
bral hemispheres are destroyed as far down as the level of the 
floor of the lateral ventricles, movement in a forward direction is 
produced. If both the optic thalami are injured, the animal falls 
forward; if only one of them, he falls one side. Rotation or 
turning round is produced by destruction of one of the striated 
bodies. If on the left side, the animal rotates to the left, and 
to the right when the disease is situated on the right side. One 
remarkable circumstance connected with motivity is, that when 
the cerebellum is injured the movement is in a backward direc- 
tion ; therefore the precise locality of the lesion may be decided 
by keeping in mind the respective sources of the motor func- 
tions. 
Prognosis of Cerebral Abscess. — It is very evident, from the na- 
ture of the structure composing the walls of the cranial cavity, that 
an escape of purulent fluid from an abscess of the brain by an outlet 
to the external surface of the body is exceedingly precarious and 
doubtful. It is improbable in all cases, and in all but barely possi- 
ble. The cribriform plate of the ethmoid bone may ulcerate and 
yield to the course of pus in this direction, or some' defined spot in 
the parietal, as is occasionally observed in the sturdied sheep ; or 
destruction of the petrous portion of the temporal bone may take 
place, and give exit to the purulent matter, but the animal will 
very rarely survive these terminations. The removal of the col- 
lection by absorption cannot be expected, being the chronic form of 
abscess, and, in which kind, the termination by absorption is rarely 
accomplished in any part of the body ; consequently abscess of the 
brain is generally , if not invariably, fatal. 
A CASE OF A HORSE SWALLOWING SPONGE. 
By G. Rick WOOD, Esq., V.S., Bedford. 
On the evening of the 14th of March 1839, I was called on to 
attend a horse the property of a gentleman in this neighbourhood. 
The animal having just returned from a journey, had, an hour pre- 
