AND RUPTURE OF THE GASTROCNEMIUS MUSCLE. 583 
tinually catching his leg up. I cannot ascertain the precise seat 
of lameness. I extracted a thorn from the leg, but that could have 
nothing to do with the grievance. Tetanic symptoms are beginning 
to be manifest. 
I took a gallon of blood from the neck, and he then began to 
swerve and perspire at the shoulder. The bleeding strangely 
and instantaneously relaxed the spasmodic affection of the mus- 
cular system, and the horse was enabled to put himself in a posi- 
tion to void his urine, which he had not done for two days. Fo- 
ment the limb, and give opium and digitalis daily. 
Dec. 1st . — Fever slightly abated. Pulse 70. Eats a little hay 
and carrots. I now perceive a swelling extending from the mus- 
cular part of the flexor tendons to the hock. The lameness is still 
extreme. Bleed from the femoral vein. Give drachm doses of 
aloes, tartar emetic and digitalis, and foment the limb frequently. 
5th . — Pulse 60 ; lameness and pain as acute as ever. He can- 
not put his foot to the ground, and moves on three legs. I again 
opened the femoral vein, and divided the periosteum beneath a 
part of the swelling six inches in length, and inserted a seton 
over the swelling. Continually foment the limb, and give febri- 
fuges. 
12th . — Pulse 50. Fever abated — feeds better — can bear a little 
weight on the limb — seton discharges. Foment as before. 
19th . — No fever — appetite good — swelling of thigh and hock 
diminished, but very hard. The lameness still very great, and 
which continued so until the middle of January, when it was 
deemed necessary to destroy the patient. 
Dissection . — The fascirn of the muscles of the thigh, generally, 
considerably ^thickened, the cellular tissue connecting together 
the flexor muscles likewise thickened. On separating the gastroc- 
nemius externus from the flexor pedis perforans muscle, a quart of 
liquid blood, mixed with pus, escaped. The muscles were strongly 
united and blended together by tendinous fibres, and it was with 
great difficulty that I separated them : in the centre of the gastroc- 
nemius externus muscle I discovered a great rent of a portion of 
its fibres, and a cavity which was fdled with pus and coagulated 
blood. I observed spots of ecchymosis on various parts of the 
superficies of the muscles of the thigh. The synovia in the hock 
joint was of the consistence of glue. 
V 
