280 
CASES OF PALSY IN THE HORSE. 
was calmer, and the previously profuse perspiration was much 
diminished ; but this improvement was only temporary, and very 
soon new symptoms began to manifest themselves. She had 
been standing nearly half an hour, but she now lay, or rather 
fell down, and the pain which seemed to have been confined to 
the right hind leg, all at once manifested itself in the opposite 
one. From this moment the animal could not raise herself 
without great difficulty, and never perfectly effected it. 
I then cut off the tail, and a great quantity of blood was lost; 
but this measure was as fruitless as the others, and did not in 
the slightest degree arrest the progress of the disease. At ten 
o’clock I placed two setons dipped in a strong stimulating mix¬ 
ture in her thighs; but the power of voluntary motion, and the 
sense of feeling in her hind legs, were nearly gone, and the tem¬ 
perature of these limbs was also considerably diminished. She 
gradually became unconscious ; the pulse could scarcely be felt, 
and every thing announced that death was inevitably approach¬ 
ing. She lingered on, however, until nine o’clock on the follow¬ 
ing morning, when she died. 
Examination six hours after death .—Neither the abdominal 
nor thoracic viscera, nor the brain, presented any remarkable 
appearance of disease. 
The spinal canal, which was opened from the dorsal region to 
the commencement of the sacrum, presented, at first sight, no 
great deviation from health, although the cause, and the only 
cause of death, existed here. 
The adipose tissue which enveloped the dura mater was in¬ 
filtrated with a reddish fluid, extending from the last dorsal to 
the last lumbar vertebra. The dura mater exhibited no lesion. 
The arachnoid membrane was much injected, for the space of about 
jive inches , corresponding with the lumbar portion of the spinal 
cord. The membrane ivas also slightly thickened , and the sub- 
serous tissue sensibly engorged*. The spinal marrow itself was 
of its ordinary colour and consistence. 
* M. Andral says that there is no record of the arachnoid membrane of 
the spinal cord being found opaque, injected , or thickened; and that the 
morbid changes that take place are certainly beneath this membrane. Fie 
adds, that the term arachnitis , given to inflammation of the membranes which 
surround the spina! marrow, is altogether inapplicable.— Dictionnaire de 
Medecine (Moelli epiniere), tom. xiv. 
From this passage one would be tempted to believe that this learned 
author imagines that the spinal arachnoid membrane is not susceptible ot 
inflammation, as other serous membranes are : but the fact which I am 
here relating, and the memoirs of M. Dupuy, stating the presence of a fi¬ 
brous membrane, thickly set, with tubercles, on the spinal arachnoid of a 
paralyzed ox (a case which I have related in an essay on the diseases of the 
spinal cord), seem to demonstrate the contrary, at least in our larger do¬ 
mesticated animals .—A uthor . 
