123 
OBSERVATIONS ON HYDROCEPHALUS IN THE 
HORSE. (STAGGERS.) 
By M. C. Lessona, Professor and Director of the Royal Vete¬ 
rinary School, Turin. Translated from the Italiany with Anno¬ 
tations, hyZ. B. C. Rodet, Junr. Assistant Professor at the 
Royal Veterinary School, A If or t. 
HYDROCEPHALUS may be congenital or acquired: these 
observations regard the latter. In human medicine it is also 
distinguished into external and internal: the former being 
nothing more than oedema of the scalp. 
The four cases related by M. Lessona consist purely in dropsy 
of the lateral ventricles; and as such in reference to the recent 
discovery of Magendie’s, of an encephalo-spinal fluid, (which 
subsequent experiments on the living animal, particularly some 
by Dupuy, have since confirmed,) ought unquestionably to be 
viewed with some caution ; and especially should it appear that 
the pretended dropsy was not very evident, and that it was con¬ 
fined to the lateral ventricles and spinal canal; but above all 
should the effused fluid itself not exhibit signs of its being the 
result of local irritation, either actually present or evidently pre¬ 
existent. In M. Lessona’s cases however such was the nature 
of the fluid discovered in the ventricles, and such the morbid 
condition of the parts connected with the secretion, that no 
room is left for doubting that the disease was other than genuine 
hydrocephalus internus. 
Case I. In January, 1826, a Hanoverian stallion, of a 
sanguo-lymphatic temperament, was discovered, without having 
evinced any previous disorder, thrusting his head against the 
manger, and stamping repeatedly and violently wdth his fore 
feet; the cranial region and ears were warm; the eyes fixed, the 
pupils dilated, and the conjunctive membranes injected ; the 
pituatury membrane a little heightened in colour, the mouth 
hot, the tongue clammy and disposed to dryness ; the pulse 
frequent and hard; the respiration difficult; the dung-balls 
small, hard, enveloped in an abundant yellow slime, and offen¬ 
sive to the smell; showing disorder of the digestive organs.— 
The animal was largely bled from the saphinar as well as the 
jugular (sangles) veins, and had clysters administered. When 
put into the longe afterwards, he bored against the caveson, 
threw his head up and commenced stamping again. Blood was 
taken from the neck again and also from the tail, after which 
he made a few turns in the longe and then fell down, lying for 
some time quiet; next, having arisen, he discharged some dung. 
