AND KUMREE, OR WEAKNESS OF THE LOINS. 311 
seeing Mr. Twining’s publication. I, however, never performed 
it until the horse was cast. It appears to me that both ways have 
their advantages, and much depends on the confidence of the 
operator. 
After the operation it will be necessary to bleed and purge, 
not only to prevent any symptomatic affection, but to assist in 
reducing the local inflammation. . Local bleeding, and the conti¬ 
nual application of cold water, ought also to be resorted to. When 
the inflammation subsides, it will be necessary occasionally to 
blow a little common salt, or any other stimulant, into the eye, to 
cause absorption. 
^Mf the worm does not escape with the aqueous humour on the 
first attempt, it will be necessary to repeat the operation as soon 
as it is again visible, which will generally be on the first, or, at 
most, second day after the operation: by this time, also, the 
aqueous humour will have accumulated. , It often happens, that 
immediately after the escape of the aqueous humour the worm 
dies in the eye; in which case it will be absorbed like any other 
foreign matter, and the eye again become clear. 
This concludes what I have to say on worm in the eye, I 
shall now make a few observations on what appears to me to be 
the causes of weakness of the loins; and in presenting them to 
the Society, I beg to say, they are founded on experience, nume¬ 
rous dissections, and experiments on horses affected with the 
complaint. 
My attention was first directed to the spinal marrow, but 
more particularly to that portion within the lumbar vertebrae, as 
well as to the vertebrae themselves, and lumbar muscles. I have 
destroyed many horses affected with the complaint, with the view 
of ascertaining its cause; but I have not yet observed any animal- 
culae either about the vertebrae or cellular tissue connected with 
them. 
In the course of my dissections I have met with one solitary 
instance in which the cause appeared to me to be satisfactorily 
obvious. It is necessaiy for me here to state, that horses when 
cast sometimes have the transverse processes of the lumbar verte¬ 
brae, from violent exertion of the hinder extremities, fractured and 
partially displaced. When this happens, anchylosis of the pro¬ 
cesses succeeds, which occasionally extends to the body of the 
bone, in which case the intervertebral cartilages are absorbed, and 
ossific matter deposited in their stead. This ossific matter, press¬ 
ing on the theca of the spinal marrow, and on the nerves as they 
pass out, will produce the disease, or one similar to it. I state 
this by way of illustrating one cause of the complaint, but more- 
particularly the cause just now alluded to. In the above-men- 
