AN INTERESTING CASE OF MELANOSIS. 
209 
viscera may, in the great majority of instances, be found after 
death largely implicated; but here an isolated animal has to be 
considered, and it can be judged of only by the symptoms which 
it exhibited. When I was requested to examine it, I was par¬ 
ticular in my inquiries, and I was informed the appetite was 
good and the spirits excellent. The condition was admirable— 
the coat silky — the breathing tranquil — the eye bright—the 
membranes healthy—and, in short, all looked well. The dung 
was natural, and there was nothing to be remarked in the manner 
of staling; neither was any thing to be noticed in the character 
of the urine. An observant groom could tell me of nothing 
wrong in the horse, which was the favourite of his stable, and 
a considerate master was grieved only because the animal he 
most valued was disfigured. In all this I can find no evidence 
that the organs necessary to vital functions were disordered. 
When health, spirits, and digestion were preserved, we may 
perhaps conclude the parts necessary to their continuance were 
perfect. That these structures may now be implicated is not un¬ 
likely ; but be it remembered, I am here referring to a period prior 
to the time when melanosis was stirred up with a seton. At the 
College, when there the horse was first introduced, no one disco¬ 
vered the disease in that which afterwards is ascertained to be a 
living mass of malignant cancer. If spleen, liver, See. were then 
affected, why was not the real character of a disorder so prevalent 
throughout the animal system pointed out 1 There was a tumour 
in one place only, covered by the skin, and those who could not 
declare its character are not best qualified to speak with confidence 
of the condition of more deeply seated and more hidden parts. I 
saw no proof that the digestive organs were even disturbed; and 
there is, that I know of, no evidence that they were at that time 
deranged. It is, however, common to persons who are unable to 
calculate probabilities to arrogate a capability to estimate possibi¬ 
lities. We are told, the horse would die : a power of prophecy is 
assumed by those who shewed themselves unequal to reasonable 
conjecture, even when there were before them circumstances 
calculated to convey the hint. 
Now, that the removal of the scirrhus would not have eradicated 
the tendency to the disease, I to the fullest extent admit, if on such 
a point any acknowledgment can be of importance. That fact is 
established; but it makes no way in the matter under debate. 
Since the disease had shewn a marked disposition to exhibit itself 
upon the surface of the body, there was, in addition to the hope 
afforded by the state of the general health, strong grounds, very 
strong grounds, to infer that the internal structures were not im¬ 
plicated. This it was fair to assume was the case; and until some- 
