642 COMPOUND FRACTURE OF THE OCCIPITAL BONE. 
harsh skin, with scanty and dark-coloured urine, are common 
indications of the state of the system. Whether or no the 
secretion from the intestinal membrane is acid, we are hardly 
justified in asserting, from the want of sufficiently numerous 
and exact data; but there can be no doubt of its possessing 
certain irritating properties which often keep up the diseased 
action after the original cause has ceased to act. 
COMPOUND FRACTURE OF THE OCCIPITAL 
BONE.—RECOVERY. 
By Richard H. Dyer, M.R.C.V.S., Waterford. 
On the 28th of July last, an aged bay gelding, the pro¬ 
perty of a gentleman residing at Castletown, Carrick-on-Suir, 
was sent here for treatment. The history of the case is as 
follows :—Two days previously, the horse being at grass, he 
sometime during the night fell over a sunk-fence . The sunk- 
fence might be described thus:—two fields are divided by 
means of a masoned stone wall, the wall on one side being 
on a level with the field No. 1; on the other side, field No 2, 
is a large ditch, so as to prevent animals going from one 
field to the other; which, to my mind, is one of the most 
dangerous fences used in the country. Some persons, how¬ 
ever, raise the wall a foot high, or a little more, so as more 
effectually to ward off ramblers. 
The animal to which I have referred, fell over the wall 
into the ditch in the dark, and was unable to extricate him¬ 
self therefrom. In his struggles he injured himself very much 
in several parts of the body, more especially along the course 
of the spine. But the principal seat of injury was the poll, 
where there was found to be a wound large enough to put in 
two fingers. The man in charge bled him, and as the horse 
became somewhat dull and listless, and a considerable 
amount of puffing was observed about the face and head, he 
thought proper to send him here, a distance of twelve miles, 
to have advice. 
A careful examination of the wound enabled me to 
diagnose a fracture of the occipital crest, and the separation 
of the crest was so complete that one would have imagined 
it had been sawn through. 
My prognosis was unfavorable. Taking into considera¬ 
tion the fact of the horse having struggled so much as to 
