512 
PARALYSIS OF SUPRASCAPULAR NERVE. 
continue severe—that is, if the difficulty in movement has not begun to 
disappear—there is little hope. Of five cases seen at the Berlin school, 
three alone recovered, though Kattner effected a cure in six weeks. Of 
ten cases of suprascapular lameness seen between 1875 and 1890, three 
were discharged improved and four uncured. The case in a bull before 
mentioned remained uncured. Marked atrophy of the paralysed muscle 
is an unfavourable symptom, though one case mentioned by Lesbre 
recovered completely and the atrophied muscle was restored after an 
interval of eighteen months. The return of irritability under the faradic 
current is a reliable sign of improvement. While animals affected with 
this lameness cannot be employed in rapid draught, yet they can still do 
slow work in a breast-collar ; the ordinary collar favours the disease, 
because it tends to displace the shoulder. 
Treatment must follow general principles. Little can be done to 
check the progress of already-existing pathological changes in the nerve,, 
At first the patient mast be rested, and attempts made to increase local 
nutrition, and thus prevent atrophy, by kneading or striking the muscles 
for 15 or 20 minutes twice daily. Massage may possibly favour removal 
of already-existing anatomical changes in the nerve; for the same 
purpose veratrin may from time to time be injected. One and a half 
grains of veratrin (the variety insoluble in water) is rubbed down with 
about 75 minims of water without adding alcohol, and the mixture 
injected beneath the skin over the region of the muscle. Good results 
have been seen from subcutaneous injection of oil of turpentine. 
On account of the excessive sensitiveness of the horse, the use of 
electricity, especially of the induced current, is generally too troublesome 
to be of service, though it is one of the most effective means of restrain¬ 
ing loss of muscular and nervous irritability, and may perhaps be tried 
in valuable animals. When similar symptoms follow bruising, cold 
applications are preferable. 
In the spring of 1875, three horses with this lameness were sent to 
the Berlin school in rapid succession. Two showed traces of violence in 
the shoulder region : one had run away and struck the affected shoulder 
against a tree, the other one had also been in collision. Symptoms of 
lameness appeared shortly after the accidents. One of the three horses 
soon became sound ; the two others appeared incurable. Later two more 
cases were seen to recover, one in spite of the fact that there had been 
considerable rupture of muscle. 
Williams describes, under the name of “ shoulder-slip,” a disease said 
to occur in plough-horses, which are obliged to walk with one foot at a 
lower level than the other. According to Williams’s description, this 
appears to be paralysis of the suprascapular nerve, though he describes 
pathological changes in the spinati and teres muscles, as well as in the 
