THE CERVICAL VERTEBRAE IN A HEIFER. 451 
covered, notwithstanding an inflammatory enlargement at the upper 
part of the neck, which made it necessary to remove the bandages 
sooner than was intended. 
A very interesting case is recorded by M. Godine in the “ Jour- 
nal de Med. Vet.” A horse, nine years old, was pronounced to be 
incurable by a farrier; and, afterwards, by a veterinary surgeon. 
Before, however, he was sacrificed, the proprietor determined to 
consult M. Godine, jun. This gentleman found the poor patient 
in the following situation : — He lay on his right side, motionless — 
his head turned to the left — and the skin covered with a cold 
sweat. The head, nostrils, and lips were oedematous, and swollen 
to an enormous size, as if the animal had been strangulated. The 
odontoid apophysis — the conical bony protuberance on the superior 
portion of the body of the second cervical vertebra — had sensibly 
deviated to the right, and formed a projection on the superior part 
of the right wing of the atlas — the cervical ligament at this point 
a little bending towards the right — there was spasmodic contraction 
both of the right and left cervical muscles, producing immobility of 
the neck. The horse sighed on the slightest pressure of the part, 
and the respiration was laborious and hissing. 
He had been cast in the night, and, after many useless efforts to 
disengage himself, and in which he had been thus bruised, it 
seemed that he had fallen on his head with his neck bent under 
him. In this situation he was found by the coachman, at seven 
o’clock in the morning. The halter was cut, but he made no effort 
to get up; and his only movement was that of breathing. He was 
bled, and still he lay thus far motionless. The farrier who bled 
him declared that there was no hope of saving him ; and a regi- 
mental veterinary surgeon was of the same opinion. M. Godine, 
however, judging from the continuance of the breathing that the 
luxation was incomplete, would not totally abandon the case. He 
raised him by means of pullies, and the voluntary motion which 
ensued assured him of the integrity of the spinal cord. He then 
offered the patient some gruel, which he drank as well as the en- 
gorgement of his lips would permit. 
On the following day, after using an almost incredible degree of 
extension, M. Godine fancied that he heard a noise as if the po- 
lished head of tbe bone had again entered its natural cavity. The 
horse got up and walked about, but staggered as he walked, and 
was apparently much incommoded by the weight of his head. By 
the use of various means, however, and a blister among the rest, 
the horse perfectly recovered. 
Hurtrel D’Arboval quotes, at considerable length, from the 
“ Recueil,” to prove that there was not any luxation, properly 
speaking; and he confidently adds his own opinion to that of the 
