262 
OBSERVATIONS ON IMPROVED HORSESHOE. 
The commanding officer having sent a message to me re¬ 
questing my service, I found on arrival that many of the animals 
were totally incapable of standing, even when supported by 
several assistants, and that the injuries to the nervous and mus¬ 
cular systems were so serious as to prevent the possibility of 
their removal from the deck of the ship to land without the 
aid of a float. This being at length accomplished, they 
were taken one at a time to my infirmary, and their comfort, 
&c., carefully attended to. I found, upon examination of a 
mare, that she had been so much injured about the cranium 
that I despaired of her life from the first. She died the 
next day, after much suffering. The post-mortem examination 
disclosed a fracture of the cuneiform process of the occiput, 
near its junction with the sphenoid bone. The surrounding 
textures were intensely inflamed, and especially the meninges 
of the brain and spinal cord. 
This is the only case of fracture of this bone I have ever 
met with. 
I examined every other part of the animal in presence of 
the commanding officer and the farrier, and asked of them 
if the mare was not of an excitable disposition, and also if she 
v^as not very thick-winded and a roarer. To these three 
queries, answers in the affirmative were given. 
1 need not state that my reason for asking these questions 
w r as from the appearances presented in the heart, lungs, and 
larvnx. I found the mucous membrane of the bladder in a 
peculiar state, resembling that produced by the dotting of 
white paper with ink. The large intestines were also inflamed 
in patches. The liver w as softened, and so were the kidneys. 
These important organs being so changed in structure would, 
I think, account for the death of the animal in so short a 
time, because the fractured bone was not displaced. 
A gray gelding, having no fracture, and being apparently 
healthy otherwise, lingered until the 12th, when lie died. 
This animal was injured in the spine, besides wfliich the 
in tegumental lesions w r ere so severe that almost the entire 
surface of the body, just before death, suppurated. 
FURTHER OBSERVATIONS ON THE IMPROVED 
HORSESHOE. 
By H. Withers, M.R.C.V.S., V.S. Royal Artillery. 
In last month’s number of the Veterinarian , your cor¬ 
respondent, Mr. Broad, seems to doubt the possibility of 
