518 MR. youatt’s veterinary lectures. 
the cranial roof. The broad and flattened expansion of the 
forehead in the ox, and the use which is made of the horn as 
a weapon of offence, expose that part of the cranium to occasional 
fracture. A cow received a wound in this manner. It entered 
the scull about an inch and a halt above the right orbit, and in 
a line from the internal angle of the orbit to the parietal ridge. 
She was seen in the morning feeding as usual, but with a glairy- 
bloody fluid running from the corresponding nostril. The herds¬ 
man having introduced his finger to ascertain the depth of the 
wound, the cow r fell as by a stroke of lightning, but after lying 
during two or three seconds insensible, she got up and began to 
graze again. 
A veterinary surgeon was sent for, who, after very cautiously 
introducing his finger, ascertained that the horn had penetrated 
through the frontal sinus and the internal plate of the cranial 
roof, and had actually reached the brain; he contented himself 
with bleeding her, and administered a dose of physic, and, having 
placed a pledget of tow over the wound, he left her, having ordered 
her to be confined to the cow-house. She fed and ruminated as 
usual; but on the third day, when she was taken out to the 
water, she had no sooner quitted the stable than she began 
slowly to turn round and round from the left to the right. She 
was stopped, and led a little farther on, when she commenced 
the same rotatory motion, and still in the same direction. She 
was taken into the house and fastened up until the medical at¬ 
tendant could be sent for, who ordered her to be immediately 
destroyed. The horn had penetrated into the right lobe of the 
brain, through the lateral ventricle, and into the corpus striatum; 
but the inner plate seemed to have been retracted w T ith the horn, 
and its fractured edges projected into the frontal sinus, and did 
not press on the brain. Inflammation marked the course of the 
horn through the brain, and decomposition had taken place, 
attended by a most fetid smell. 
In general, however, fracture of the scull is accompanied by 
pressure of the bone on the brain ; and this produces loss of 
consciousness to a greater or less degree, and usually complete 
coma. 
If it is a horned beast, the practitioner will compare the possi¬ 
bility of giving relief with the probable injury that the carcass will 
sustain during the prolonged attempt to effect a cure. If he 
decides on the adoption of surgical means, he will have re¬ 
course to the trephine, and then endeavour to raise the depressed 
pieces of bone by means of the elevator; but in the majority of 
cases, and if the animal is in tolerable condition, he will consign 
it at once to the butcher. 
