142 
GTommunttattong anil ©ag'Eg. 
A i s veterinaria post medicinam secunda est.— Veyetim. 
FRACTURE OF THE SPINE IN A MARE, WITH PALSY 
OF THE HINDER EXTREMITIES. 
By Mr. Hudson, M.R.C.S. and V.S., Lincoln. 
AN aged mare, whilst hunting last winter with Sir Richard Sutton's 
hounds, in endeavouring to clear a ditch of two yards wide, dropped 
in with her hind parts, but succeeded in getting out, and staggered 
a short distance farther, when she fell, and could not be made to 
get up again. I was sent for, and found the hinder extremities 
completely paralyzed, whilst the fore ones retained their full 
power of action; and, upon pricking them with a sharp instru¬ 
ment, great pain was evinced. But not so with the hind ones, 
as they were quite insensible to any stimulus whatever. I then 
concluded, that there must either be considerable effusion on the 
medulla spinalis, or that the spine itself must be fractured. 
Little w 7 as done in the way of treatment, as I saw my patient 
could live only a few hours, which proved to be the case. Upon 
a post-mortem examination, I found a fracture in the anterior 
lumbar vertebra, w 7 ith the spinous process torn from the body of 
it, and pressing on the theca vertebralis, where there w 7 as a con¬ 
siderable quantity of extravasated blood, as was also the case be¬ 
neath the sacro-lumbales and longissimi dorsi muscles. Behind 
the fracture two of the lumbar vertebrae were joined together by 
a large ossific deposition, the inter-vertebral substance being re¬ 
moved, and bone supplying its place. The transverse processes of 
all the vertebrae were joined together in some places by bony 
knobs, particularly so at their roots, and about mid-way every 
one was broken, which must have been occasioned by the action 
of the muscles covering these parts. This I hold to be the case 
too w r ith the fracture of the anterior vertebra. 
The mare being enabled to get out of the ditch, and to get a 
few yards from it, was probably in consequence of the vertebra 
remaining in its natural situation until the time of the fall, although 
previously broken. I may add, that I afterwards learned that the 
mare had been occasionally in the habit of falling, but was en¬ 
abled to get up shortly afterwards ; and this circumstance I con¬ 
ceive might be owing to the flexibility of the spine being partially 
lost, so that in violent exertion there was, at times, a momentary 
• concussion of the spinal marrow. 
