680 
DISLOCATION OF THE PATELLA. 
peared in great pain, respiration hurried, perspiring profusely, 
the near hind leg extended directly backwards, and incapable 
of being moved. I was informed he had been affected several 
times previously in a similar manner. Perceiving the rectus 
and vasti muscles could not perform their functions, I was led to 
an examination of the stifle joint, when I discovered the patella 
to be dislocated outwardly: by a slight inclination of the leg 
forward, it was with ease reduced to its proper situation, when 
he walked perfectly sound; but when turning him towards the 
side affected, it again slipped from its articulation. I reduced it 
as before, ordered cold applications to the joint, and his head 
to be tied up. To my surprise, when attending him on the 
follow ing morning, I found the patella on the contrary side simi¬ 
larly displaced ; it w 7 as redu ed w ith a slight degree of pressure, 
and he was again rendered capable of moving with ease: the 
cold applications w ere continued a few T days, then a blister ap¬ 
plied to both joints, and the horse turned to grass. 
Having ascertained that he had been thus affected only when 
in a low state of condition, never having sustained any injury of 
which they were aw are, the remarkable ease with which the 
patellae were restored to their articulations, and both joints 
being alike affected, induce me to consider it as proceeding 
from the w ant of a sufficient degree of convexity in the natural 
conformation of the anterior condyles of the os femoris. 
CASE II. 
A valuable pointer bitch, the property of Mr. J. Upfill, of Bir¬ 
mingham, was put under my care: she presented a very ema¬ 
ciated appearance, in which condition she had been for four or 
five months. Her evacuations were for a day or two very thin 
and copious, and afterw ard for several days nothing was passed: 
upon pressing the abdomen with both hands, a hard substance 
w as distinctly felt in the inferior part of the umbilical region. 
She was destroyed, and upon post-mortem examination, a cal¬ 
culus was discovered in the ileum, about the size and shape of 
a hen’s egg, the nucleus of which was a portion of hair: the coats 
of the intestine were considerably thickened and enlarged, so 
as to form a kind of sac for its retention. Anterior to this was 
another consisting of a ball of hair, covered with a layer of 
earthy matter about the eighth of an inch thick; and next to 
this a ball of hair, of less dimensions, intermixed with a gritty 
substance. The stomach contained a large quantity of hair, and 
a portion of the omentum, about the size of a crow n piece, was 
thickly studded with small white calculi, the largest about the 
size of a pea, and particularly hard. 
