194 INQUIRY INTO A DISEASE OF THE HORSE 
the question for his decision was, whether the horse was sound 
when the plaintiff purchased it. It was painful to decide when 
“ doctors differed;” but, after taking a review of the evidence, 
he was of opinion that it was established that the horse was 
sound when sold by defendant, and that, from some circum¬ 
stance, he became lame after he got into the possession of the 
plaintiff. He regretted that the offer of the plaintiff to have the 
question of soundness tested by the College in London had not 
been accepted; but this not having been done, he pronounced, 
under the circumstances, a verdict for the defendant. 
Foreign Department. 
INQUIRIES INTO A DISEASE OF THE HORSE AS 
YET BUT LITTLE KNOWN. 
By 0. Delafond, 
Professor of Pathology at the National Veterinary School at Alfort. 
[Continued from page 165.] 
Modifications wrought in Nutrition by the long-continued Use 
ofi Artificial Fodder. 
In the estimation of the chemist, that food is the most nutri¬ 
tive which contains the greatest proportion of azote, without 
regard to such element being furnished by fibrine, albumen, 
or any other organic substance. Indeed, according to some 
chemists and physiologists, fibrine and albumen constitute but 
one and the same immediate principle, whether it be after 
digestion or flowing with the blood under the influence of 
vitality. If this were the case, either of these two principles, 
existing in the food, might serve for the normal constitution of 
the blood, and for the support of life. But observation does not 
bear this view out. Both to the physiologist and pathologist 
notable differences mark these two animal substances. Fibrine, 
let out of its vessels, immediately coagulates in a filamentous 
form, while albumen remains in a state soluble in serum. 
During disease, fibrine is not effused but in the second stage of 
inflammation, whereas it is albumen that constitutes the pro¬ 
ducts of the first stage. 
United to osmazone and creatine, fibrine, in the work of 
nutrition, is the principal ingredient in muscle or flesh. Albu- 
