ON THE DISEASES OF THE SPINAL CHORD. 171 
nal, was filled with effused blood from the lumbar enlargement 
to the base of the twelfth dorsal vertebra. In the whole of that 
space the dura mater was very red, and slightly thickened ; the 
fluid contained in the sheath was coloured, and the vessels of 
the pia mater were injected. The spinal marrow did not pre¬ 
sent any remarkable alteration here ; but from the tenth dorsal 
vertebra to the third cervical it was softened ; it was converted 
into a bouille-white, yet pointed with blood : its grey substance 
was somewhat reddened, but its membranes were perfectly 
sound. 
This case seems to me a very interesting one, in that it exhi¬ 
bits, in the same subject, isolated morbid changes of the spinal 
chord, and of its envelopes. 
When describing the general symptoms which characterize 
diseases of the membranes of the spinal chord in the horse, I 
said that these affections were as yet too little known for it to be 
possible to distinguish each by its particular symptoms. I con¬ 
fined myself to those which had fallen under my own observa¬ 
tion, and which appeared to me to be able to throw some light on 
the diagnosis of these maladies. 
The remarks which I have made on this subject have been 
few, and perhaps not very conclusive. I feel it necessary, how¬ 
ever, to repeat them here. It seems to me, that the animals that 
have died, whether of congestion or of rachidian meningitis, ex¬ 
perienced the most violent pain, continual agitation, and convul¬ 
sive movements, and which we only observed in a very inferior 
degree in those in which the spinal marrow alone was affected. 
I will not, however, presume to represent these aggravated 
symptoms as characteristic ones, but, on the contrary, I will re¬ 
peat, that, as yet, we do not possess any special symptom by 
which we can distinguish one affection from another. 
§ V. 
The etiology of diseases of the spinal marrow in domestic 
animals is as yet too little advanced for it to be possible to pro¬ 
duce any thing truly exact and conclusive on the subject. We 
will nevertheless attempt, so far as it regards the horse, to cast 
some light on this point of veterinary pathology, hitherto so 
obscure. 
The revulsion of a cutaneous malady; the neglect of an ac¬ 
customed bleeding; sudden stoppage of perspiration; want of 
exercise ; over-feeding, &c. &c.; in a word, all the general 
causes of inflammation may doubtless act upon the spinal mem¬ 
branes as surely as upon any other organs, and produce irri¬ 
tation there. Nevertheless, if we endeavour to connect any 
