DISEASE OF OSSEOUS TISSUE IN THE HORSE. 497 
horse, the same tenderness and rigidity of the back were 
manifested when he was made to back or turn. The visible 
mucous membranes likewise presented the same appearance, 
but the peculiar enlargement of the bones did not exist. 
The pulse was only a little increased in number, but in 
both horses it became increased about 10 in the minute, if 
they were made to walk for a short distance. 
I was informed that the chestnut horse had been ill about 
six months; that a short time after he was first attacked he 
became apparently better in health, and was castrated, from 
which operation he recovered in the usual time, but after 
awhile he relapsed into his former state of health, and had 
continued to get worse up to the present time. His food 
consisted of pollard, mangel-wurzel, and good upland hay. 
I then proceeded to examine the carcase of the horse that 
had died the day before. Not being provided with proper 
instruments, and the post-mortem having to be made in the 
field, my examination was not so minute as it otherwise would 
have been. An accidental circumstance threw a little light 
upon the nature of the disease. I have before alluded to the 
enlarged state of the facial bones of the brown horse. This 
fact induced me to proceed, firstly, to examine the head of this 
horse. After having removed the skin from the side of the face, 
and dissected back the muscles and periosteum, I pressed upon 
the bones for the purpose of testing their density, and while 
so doing, a young man belonging to a dog-kennel about half 
a mile distant, who happened to be present, said, “ I daresay 
you will find the bones of this horse just like those of the 
other horses.” On asking him what he meant by that ob¬ 
servation, he answered, using his own words, iC Why they 
were as soft as a pear; they boiled all to pieces. They were 
so soft that a rib could be cut easily with a knife, or it broke 
like a rotten stick.” I asked him if he thought any of these 
bones could be obtained ? he replied they could, and he would 
select some of them if I wished. This I considered some¬ 
what important information, and requested him to furnish me 
with some of them, which he did, and these I found to be in 
the state he had described. 
With the assistance of Mr. Wallin, we now proceeded with 
our examination : first inspecting the abdominal and thoracic 
viscera, and next the articulations of the extremities. The 
former, with the exception of a peculiar pallidness, showed no 
marks of disease. The latter, however, Mr. Wallin assured 
me were identical in appearance with those he had previously 
examined. Portions of the bones entering into the joints of the 
extremities, and a part of those of the facial region, I brought 
