278 
CASES OF PALSY IN THE HORSE. 
limbs particularly trembled. Imagining that she must be seri¬ 
ously ill, he hastened to detach her from the vehicle, and to lead 
her to the shop of a neighbouring farrier. Observing that she was 
continually lying down and rising up, the farrier thought that it 
was merely a fit of colic, and administered a vegetable infusion 
with aromatic ether. This medicine, instead of allaying the pain, 
seemed to increase it; but that did not prevent the farrier from 
giving a second dose, which produced the same effect as the first. 
At length, at ten o’clock, the proprietor, who had been informed 
of the case, having arrived from Paris, applied to me to undertake 
the treatment of the animal. 
She was then lying on her right side, and evidently suffering 
much—her body was covered with sweat, and the perspiration 
was so abundant that it formed an atmosphere of vapour around 
her. Her limbs were in incessant agitation, but the fore limbs 
were moved more extensively than the hind ones. The pulse 
was full, hard, and slightly accelerated. In spite of her pain 
she preserved her appetite, and ate with voracity the food that was 
presented to her # ; from time to time she expelled with consi¬ 
derable force some hardened pellets of dung, and, half an hour 
before my arrival, she voided, while she was standing, a great 
quantity of dark-coloured urinef. 
I attempted to raise her, and which was accomplished with 
considerable difficulty; but in the act of backing she fell sud¬ 
denly on her litter. A little while afterwards she attempted 
once more to get up, but was unable to accomplish it. She had 
the partial use of her fore limbs alone, and with difficulty raised 
herself on her haunches, in which position she remained for some 
minutes. 
After this series of symptoms I could not doubt that it was 
an acute affection of the spinal cord or its membranes, and one 
of a very serious nature. I effected, according to my custom, a 
bleeding from the jugular of about ten pounds, and I prescribed 
mucilaginous drinks and injections. 
* I should here remind the reader that, in treating of the diseases of the 
spinal cord, I have described this symptom (the preservation of the appetite) 
as pathognomonic, and serving to distinguish palsy produced by some 
morbid state of the spinal cord or its membranes from that which is com¬ 
plicated with indigestion and retention of urine. Experience has since 
confirmed the opinion which I then ventured to give.— Author . 
f In man, palsy is always accompanied by involuntary discharge of faeces, 
and by retention of urine. I have never observed these symptoms in the 
horse. The expulsion of the pellets seemed to be the voluntary act of the 
animal; and I have, in no case, remarked retention of the urine. It is true, 
that the perspiration which in these cases inundates the bodies of the sick 
animals would render the secretion of urine much less abundant. It is, 
perhaps, to this circumstance that vve must attribute the absence of retention 
of urine in the horse.— Author. 
