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its incipient state. Every one in examining a beast for any internal 
disease makes himself aware of the important fact, when it exists, 
that there is disease of the spine. I allude now to the universal 
custom in all these cases to apply pressure to the spine, particularly 
in the neighbourhood of the lumbar vertebrae. And it is a remark- 
able exposition of our want of knowledge or attention to diseases 
connected with or dependent upon the nervous system, that no one 
has thought it necessary to attack the disease directly and locally. 
At least such practice has not been inculcated in the schools, or 
directed in the various publications which have appeared on the 
diseases of cattle. I have found it a very great improvement 
in my own practice to employ a stimulant application to the spine 
in all cases of disease where it is evidently affected : and I am 
quite sure that this alone would be sufficient to remove many slight 
cases of indigestion, &c., though it would not be good practice to 
neglect the diseases in the system occasioned by the effects, while 
attending to the cause alone. It is not alw'ays safe to reason from 
analogy in pathological matters ; but I cannot avoid referring to a fa- 
miliar case or two in order to strengthen my opinions on this subject. 
I will notice first the teething of infants. The derangement to the 
general system in these cases is often of the most serious kind, com- 
municated through the medium of the nerves which are injured by 
the cutting of the teeth. Again, in the horse, lock-jaw and torpor 
of the stomach and intestines have been too painfully obtruded on 
the attention of the veterinarian from the same cause (injury to the 
nervous system) to make it necessary to do any thing further than 
simply to mention it. 
Another case, familiar to every one of us, will be readily called 
to mind if I mention anasarca of the cellular membrane in the hind 
extremity, particularly where the deposition has been very sudden. 
We have all seen cases, approaching the appearance, in other re- 
spects, of intense pneumonia, produced by the disease in the nervous 
system, occasioned by the pressure on the branches in the nerves, 
in the part first affected. 
In an article in The VETERINARIAN for January, p. 7, Mr. King 
has very justly remarked, that no other animal is subject to this 
specific disorder. This is a strong fact in favour of my doctrine. 
In no other animal is disease of the spine so prevalent, or, if found 
to exist, so totally neglected. In the horse, for instance, it often 
occurs from accident ; and I have seen him down from this cause 
and quite as helpless as a cow with puerperal fever, though, in this 
case, the remedy is always applied directly to the part affected. 
The prevalence of this complaint in cows may, perhaps, be partly 
accounted for by the peculiar formation of the spinal vertebrae, 
the very great weight of food they carry in their stomachs and 
