590 SPONTANEOUS AND PARTIAL RUPTURE 
we to pursue the same system—if not of premature use, at least 
of continued constitutional excitement—with our hunters ? We 
hope and trust not. Nimrod, in our opinion, has got his eyes 
too firmly fixed upon the temporary inconveniences consequent 
on the old plan of the " summer’s run,” to discern the ultimate 
and not so very far distant result of the new “ system” he is so 
desirous to introduce. 
i&xtractg* 
On spontaneous and partial Rupture of the 
Muscles in the Horse. 
By F. J. J. Rigot. 
Spontaneous and partial ruptures of the muscles of locomo¬ 
tion, although of rare discovery in the horse, yet would have 
been, I think, more frequently observed in this animal, if more 
diligent researches had been made into these kinds of affections. 
The cases of which I am about to give a short account, and 
from which I shall endeavour to extract some useful results, were 
collected during the year 1825, from eight horses destined for 
anatomical purposes. 
I shall not seek to determine what might have been the cause 
of these lesions, the probable circumstances under which they 
w 7 ere effected, and the changes they produced: I shall content 
myself with narrating the facts as they presented themselves. 
A draught horse, ‘about ten years old, still vigorous, was 
brought to be given up for experiments or dissection. Having 
examined him to discover what were the causes which rendered 
him unfit for work, I became convinced, from the rigidity of the 
dorso-lombar column, the staggering action of the hinder limbs, 
and the difficulty of retrograde action, that he was affected with 
what is called strain of the loins. 
At the post-mortem examination, I observed that the left sub- 
lumbo-trochantineus muscle (psoas magnus) was considerably 
increased in size, that its tissue was not so firm as in the natural 
state, and that its cellular fascia was red and infiltrated. Having 
completed this superficial examination, 1 cut into the muscle, 
and found in the interior of it numerous clots of black blood float¬ 
ing in a cavity, the sides of which were thin, and bristling with 
red filaments, which I am convinced were the softened extremi¬ 
ties of the lacerated muscular fibres. 
The articulations of the loins, and the muscles and neighbour¬ 
ing viscera, did not, in the slightest degree, participate in this 
alteration. The anxiety with which I sought for affections of 
this nature, shortly afterwards afforded me another opportunity 
