IMMOBILITY IN THE HORSE. 
481) 
possibility of backing, and especially if, in the usual way, tlie 
muzzle is bent against the chest in the attempt to back him, and 
also the impossibility of uncrossing the fore legs, if they are 
accidentally or designedly placed across each other. The four 
extremities remain fixed, or they are convulsively agitated, and 
the horse either falls on his nose or his side, or abandons himself 
to the most irregular and spasmodic efforts.” 
It rarely comes on suddenly, or if it does, if the horse is at 
work, he all at once stops, seems half unconscious, staggers, and 
throws his feet apart, in order to keep himself from falling. 
When its approach is gradual, the animal appears unusually 
stupid—inattentive to the voice of his driver, and lost to all sur¬ 
rounding objects. Sometimes he suddenly rouses from this state 
of unconsciousness, but he presently yields to it again. His 
motions become more irregular—a general stiffness steals over 
him—occasionally he falls, but at other times he is fixed as a 
statue. By and by, urged by the whip, or the blood resuming 
its natural course, he rouses, and slowly and somewhat stupidly 
resumes his work. 
This tendency to somnolency, or to catalepsy, however, gra¬ 
dually increases,—the fits are more frequent and more obstinate, 
and the disease terminates in paralysis, either partial or general, 
and the horse wastes away, and dies. 
On examination after death, the lateral ventricles are gene¬ 
rally found distended, the plexus choroides enlarged, and often 
filled with concretions, and the substance of the brain consi¬ 
derably softened. The spinal canal is usually filled with a serous 
fluid, the meninges frequently injected, and the substance of 
the cord softened. 
There is a gentleman to whom we have lately been indebted 
for much valuable information respecting the state of the vete¬ 
rinary art, and the different character assumed by various dis¬ 
eases on the neighbouring continent. A graphic description of 
Immobilite, Charbon, and some other maladies, would be most 
welcome from him. 
Y. 
3 T 
VOL. XI. 
