WEST OF SCOTLAND VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 809 
which, to say the least of them, are altogether unjust, and 
which tend too often to injure the honest practitioner more 
than can be well known. He hoped, therefore, that when 
this important matter came before them at their next meeting 
they would give it full consideration. 
Mr. Anderson proposed that the Committee meet eight 
days before the annual meeting in December, for the purpose 
of arranging the Society’s special business at that time. 
The Chairman then called upon Mr. Dobie, of Irvine, to 
read his paper “ On Paralysis in the Horse.” But it having 
been read by him at a former meeting, he adverted to the 
particular points orally. These were afterwards fully dis¬ 
cussed by the members. Mr. Dobie’s paper is subjoined. 
Alexander Potter, 
Secretary. 
ON PARALYSIS IN THE HORSE. 
I have chosen paralysis in the horse as a subject for dis¬ 
cussion, it being a disease which perplexed me not a little in 
two cases in particular which I have met with. I therefore 
bring this subject before you, so that I, and perhaps others 
who may be younger in the profession than myself, may be 
benefited by the discussion likely to take place by the more 
experienced amongst us. 
General paralysis is a disease known by the loss or diminu¬ 
tion of the power of voluntary motion. It may affect certain 
parts of the body, each part affected having its own name, as 
paralysis, partial or complete, of some particular muscle; 
paralysis hemiplegia, one side of the body; paralysis para¬ 
plegia, one half of the body taken transversely, &c. 
General paralysis in the horse w 7 e find described in some 
of the numbers of the Veterinarian as arising from the eating 
of partially ripened rye grass, and it is believed by some to 
arise from some narcotic or paralysis-producing principle in 
the rye grass w r hen in that state. But I would ask, may it 
not result from merely the eating of too much, thus causing 
derangement of the digestive organs, and subsequently inter¬ 
fering with the flow of nervous power from the brain to the 
organs of motion? I am inclined to think this, as I have 
been called to treat similar cases during both winter and 
summer, and when I was assured that the animals had been 
fed on good corn and hay, but were perhaps idle, and, at 
the same time, gross feeders. 
These cases of paralysis, arising from the eating of rye 
xxxv. 52 
