TUMOUR IN THE LATERAL VENTRICLE. 
23 
cornea; the limbs were contracted and flexed ; he then strug¬ 
gled convulsively with his legs, as if dying. This violent 
agitation soon ceased, and he lay still, breathing deeply. He 
then came to himself, and looked confused; he shortly got 
up, and remained quiet for five or six hours. A bran mash 
was given to him, which he partook of freely, and when he 
had eaten about half of a peck, he was again seized with the 
food in his mouth, fell down suddenly on the left side, and was 
violently convulsed as before. This fit passed off, and in twenty 
minutes he had another attack while lying down, and a fourth 
seizure in the course of an hour. I prescribed aloes, with 
camphor and opium, in a ball. While administering this ball 
he had a fit. To this succeeded several others, which came 
upon him quickly, and he died in one about twenty-four 
hours from the first seizure. This horse was twelve years 
old, and of remarkably good health ; not at all loaded with 
flesh, but in fair ^working condition. 
Dissection presented the stomach, and the whole of the 
abdominal viscera, in a healthy state, but of a pale colour 
for an animal dying with the whole of his blood in him. 
The brain was congested in its venous circulation generally; 
the vena Galeni was full of blood, while the plexus choroides 
within the lateral ventricles was not the least distended, but 
appeared rather diminished in bulk. The plexus within 
the fourth ventricle was very much enlarged, and very 
vascular. The posterior surface of the medulla oblongata 
was very vascular, every vessel distended ; the pia mater 
quite red, and dark, clotted blood lay underneath the dura 
mater upon the cuneiform process of the os occipitis. 
The phenomena of epilepsy have been ascribed to every 
lesion of the brain and its membranes, and to disorders of 
the whole of the viscera of the chest and abdomen; but in 
my opinion the morbid alterations observed in epileptic 
patients are more likely to be accidental conditions rather 
than causes of the disease. Whatever may be the remote 
causes of the disorder, the immediate one is a special irrita¬ 
tion of the sensible structure of the brain; more particularly 
of the quadrigemina, crurae cerebelli, walls of the fourth ven¬ 
tricle, medulla oblongata, and tuber annulare. 
Notwithstanding that the encephalon is the fountain of 
the nervous system, it was necessary to the fulfilment of its 
own functions that ganglionic nerves were supplied to it. 
These it receives through the walls of the arteries that circu¬ 
late it. Thus it is easy to conceive that depravation, or a 
morbid condition of the blood circulating in the cerebral ves¬ 
sels, must extend its influence to the organ, and violate its 
