AN INTERESTING CASE OF MELANOSIS. 
201 
About three years ago a swelling was observed just before the 
prominence of the hip, or, to speak more correctly, immediately 
anterior to the inferior spinous process of the ileum. How the 
swelling was caused, or by what means produced, no one could 
tell; but, of course, some blow received during the night was 
conjectured by the coachman to have induced it. The enlarge¬ 
ment was at first attended to by the groom; but, it not dis¬ 
appearing, somewhere about a year ago Messrs. Broad and 
Woodger were consulted. Mr. Broad, at once, finding it hard 
and unyielding to the touch, recommended the knife; but to this 
proposal objection was made, and Mr. Woodger applied a blister 
over it, and upon the part he subsequently rubbed some iodine 
ointment. Constitutional measures of the customary kind were 
at the same time employed, but with no good result. Mr. Woodger 
had hoped to disperse the tumour, but, instead of decreasing, it 
enlarged under his treatment. The swelling became unsightly, 
nor was it improved by the absence of hair upon its centre. 
On the 13th of January of the present year I was requested to 
see the horse, and to give my opinion if any reasonable prospect 
remained that the blemish could be removed. I found him in 
excellent health and spirits, looking beautifully, and apparently 
equal to any work he could ever have performed. There was 
nothing to indicate that the constitution was feeble, and the horse 
was in admirable condition. The tumour which now became the 
immediate object of observation was in size about as large as the 
crown of a man’s hat, and of an irregular round figure. Towards 
its centre, where it was most prominent, it might be four 
inches thick from its surface to its base; and at the point here 
indicated the hair on a spot not larger than the palm of my hand 
was absent. As the colour of the horse approached to white, and 
as the hue of the skin was dark, the blemish was the more 
apparent, and it offended the eye of the animal’s owner. On 
looking attentively, the short projections of the hairs could be 
detected, and the denuded skin felt perfectly soft, moist, and 
healthy, between the fingers. 
It was supposed that Mr. Woodger’s blisters had destroyed the 
hair; but of course I contradicted that opinion, and stated, that I 
thought the absence of the natural covering of the skin had been 
occasioned simply by the rubbing of the cloth, and the tension 
caused by the enlargement. 
My next care was to ascertain, if possible, the precise nature and 
exact position of the tumour. A third of its substance (and here 
it was thickest) rested upon the loins, or laid upon the lumbar 
portion of the longissimus dorsi muscle; the remaining two-thirds 
descended over the abdominal parietes. This circumstance told 
