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SUPPOSED CASES OF EPILEPSY IN HORSES. 
I remarked to Mr. Pakeman at the time, that she appeared like 
one dying in an epileptic fit. 
We had the mare drawn out of the stable, and made on the spot 
a post-mortem examination. 
I first removed the muscles of the abdomen, and the ribs on one 
side of the thorax, so that all the viscera might be examined in 
situ. The contents of the chest were perfectly healthy; and so 
were all the organs in the abdomen. The faecal mass was, all of 
it, in a pultaceous state; it was, however, apparent there had been 
obstruction, and where the seat of it had been. This was in the 
ileum, a little before it terminates in the caecum (an unusual place), 
the latter being a little dilated, with its mucous membrane slightly 
inflamed. The brain was likewise examined; but no abnormal 
appearance or extra fulness of the vessels could be detected. 
This mare belonged to Mrs. Beeson’s son, who resides near 
Derby. His mother having sent him word that his mare was ill, 
he arrived just at the moment we had finished the post-mortem 
examination, bringing with him Mr. Atherstone, V.S., Derby. This 
gentleman, after examining all the viscera of the mare, was unable 
to account for her death. 
Remarks .—It is my opinion that this mare died in an epileptic 
fit: obstruction of the bowels being the predisposing cause, and 
worms the exciting one ; for she was very full of them—bots, teres, 
and ascarides. She had been without food and water, except what 
was horned into her, for at least twenty hours; and, when she 
began to eat and drink, it is my opinion it caused a simultaneous 
movement among the worms, which brought on the fit, and death 
as the consequence. 
Yours, &c. 
P.S.—The worms were all alive when the mare was opened. 
Case II. 
On the 25th of March, 1848, Mr. Pidcock, Agnes Meadow, sent 
for me to a horse, and requested I would attend as soon as possi¬ 
ble, as “ his horse was no sooner out of one fit than he went into 
another.” 
On my arrival I found the horse eating hay, and to all appear¬ 
ance having nothing at all the matter with him. The pulse was 
about the natural standard, and regular. I was informed that he 
had been attacked with “ something like fits” every hour during 
the morning; and it was supposed that the first began in the night, 
as his body shewed bruises in several places. 
I took him out of the stable myself into a field close by, when all 
