308 
EXFOLIATION OF THE COFFIN BONE. 
brane generally. The contents of the chest and abdomen ap¬ 
peared healthy, with the exception of the bladder and ureters ; 
the former had contracted upon its contents, and the latter were 
•as large as a little linger. I was just abandoning my search, 
having discovered no satisfactory cause for death, when J ob¬ 
served a bulbous appearance at the part where the aorta gives 
off its branches to the kidnies: on cutting into this, I disco¬ 
vered several worms and a fungous substance nearly obliterating 
the artery. I regret that I did not examine the mesenteric ar¬ 
teries, in which I have in other cases found worms, and where 
the symptoms of the complaint were similar: I should, per¬ 
haps, have found here an additional explanation of the unthrifty 
condition of the animal. 
The worms were about an inch in length, small, transparent, 
and slightly red from the blood they contained. I have never 
seen the least motion in them, and they all have been of the same 
size. 
- ■■■■ — »■■- — —— - . 
A CASE OF EXFOLIATION OF THE COFFIN BONE. 
By Mr. J. P. Cheetiiam, KS\, Edinburgh. 
On the 23d of October, 1833, a bay horse was brought to me 
from Brighton, and when I saw him the poor animal was walk- 
ing upon three legs. The history I received of the case was, 
that he had had a sandcrack in the inside of the crust of the off 
fore foot. 
I had the shoe removed and the crack pared out, but there 
was no purulent discharge. On farther examining the sole, 
a small black spot shewed itself, and, on cutting it out, a large 
quantity of a sanious fluid sprang from an opening, proving that 
a great detachment of horn from the living parts had taken place. 
I took away with the knife the horny sole and the greater por¬ 
tion of the inside quarter of the crust. The sensible parts pre¬ 
sented a gangrenous aspect, and the effluvia that proceeded from 
them was equal to that issuing from carious bones. 
The treatment adopted was yeast cataplasms thrice a-day; 
and, at each time, the foot was held in warm water until all the 
poultice detached itself. In the course of a few days the dead 
parts shewed themselves: they were a portion of the toe and 
of the sensible sole, between two and three inches square. Other 
small patches sloughed on the sole, and also on the sensible 
lamina that were exposed. This was continued during two or 
three weeks, at the expiration of which period the other surface 
of the sole presented an appearance of soft horn. 
