186 
CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE PATHOLOGY AND 
anterior vena cava, posterior ditto, iliacs, jugulars, &c.; and the 
internal membrane of these vessels was highly diseased; length¬ 
ened patches of blue, merging into the dull green colour so 
common, were present, and the structures composing these vessels 
tore into shreds with perfect ease: they contained blood such as I 
found in the heart. 
Muscular System .—With respect to the entire muscles of the 
body, including the voluntary and involuntary classes, I may 
observe that every one I examined, such as the diaphragm, the 
intercostal muscles, the psoae ditto, muscles in the region of the 
shoulders, abdomen, &c. were all in a very softened state : very 
little force was sufficient to separate their fibres, and tear them 
asunder. 
Nervous System .—The substance of the brain was very much 
softened, and its colour was changed: when the centrum ovale 
was exposed, instead of the clear white surface of health, it was a 
mixture of a pale dirty brown and white : some serum was at the 
base and in the ventricles of the organ. The medulla and spinal 
column, so far as I examined, presented the same dirty aspect. I 
could not detect any change peculiar to the large nerves. 
Case II. 
February 3, 1847—Was requested, about 8 o’clock, P.M., to 
attend upon a mare belonging to Mr. George Roberts, mill-owner, 
in this town. 
History , $c .—The animal is of a bay colour, of the light 
draught breed, rising nine years of age, stands fifteen hands three 
inches high, and has been in the hands of the present owner 
about three years. Six months ago she had an attack of the epidemic 
catarrh which prevailed at that time more or less in this district : 
this attack left the animal affected with a cough, which has con¬ 
tinued from that period to the present; prior to this illness, how¬ 
ever, she was never, from a foal, known to have suffered from 
disease. Mr. Roberts purchased her of the individual who bred 
her, and, from only having been the property of two persons, her 
history was readily obtained. The labour of the animal is some¬ 
what heavy, but regular ; it consists in leading coals to supply 
the factory engine, with occasionally a little farming labour. On 
the 1st of the present month (February 1847) she was observed 
to be unwell, but, as the symptoms did not to the owner appear at 
all urgent in their nature, he had her kept warm, and liberally 
supplied with bran mashes and linseed gruel: on the evening of 
the 3d, however, she appeared so much worse that I was re¬ 
quested to attend. 
