502 ON GASEOUS EFFUSION IN THE THORAX. 
and of a very violent temper, as her own brother was, who was 
put into the Bologne and Calais coach, but did not come alive 
out of it, having kicked himself to death before he could be 
taken out of the harness. She is the most restive animal I ever 
had to deal with, but no work can subdue her. I was ten hours 
on her back yesterday, having ridden her to Bologne races and 
back, distance forty-four miles ; and to-day she plunged worse 
with me than she had ever done before. My experience has 
led me to the conclusion, that horses which take strong doses of 
physic are strongest in constitution. 
Near Calais, Aug. 14. 
ON GASEOUS EFFUSION IN THE THORAX. 
By Mr, J. P. St. Clair, Morpeth, 
The months of May and June afforded me two cases of a 
rather singular nature. I have not seen a description of the 
disease in any veterinary work, although several of the symptoms 
are synonymous of other affections. The difficulty attending 
the discovery of the cause and origin of disease places our art in 
a degree of mystery; and not always having the opportunity of 
observing the malady in its primary stage, the difficulty is rendered 
still greater. The patient of the human surgeon can generally give 
an outline of his sufferings from the time that he first felt pain ; 
but that is not the case with us. We have to content ourselves 
with the partial, and inconsistent, and frequently absurd account 
of a groom in one class of animals, and that of a cow-herd in 
another; and, after listening to their imperfect detail of symp¬ 
toms, quite different from what we should have expected to have 
been the precursors of those at present existing, we form our 
own opinion upon the subject, and set to work to combat the 
enemy with all our skill. When our efforts prove successful, 
we set down our supposed correct diagnosis in the tablet of our 
memory; and when we are unsuccessful, we have at least the 
advantage of a post-mortem examination, from which we gene¬ 
rally derive more real and valuable information than from our 
most fortunate cases. 
It is not my intention to enter into the minutise of both cases ; 
but I shall give a general outline of the one that terminated 
fatally, the other being at present alive. 
This was a quey, three years of age. I saw her on the 2d 
of June, thirteen days after ceUving, when the following symp- 
