RUPTURE OF THE DIAPHRAGM. 
187 
just about to visit a very urgent case. Having done this, on 
my return home I thought 1 would snatch a hasty breakfast 
previous to my attendance, but before I had seated myself at 
the table I received another summons, more pressing than 
before. Attending to this forthwith, I reached the stable 
about 9 a.m., and found the horse lying dead in his stall. 
The limbs were rigid, and like the body quite cold; the 
membranes were blanched, and the abdomen tympanitic. 
The animal was lying in the centre of the stall, with his head 
towards the manger, thus elevating the fore parts. The 
horse did not appear to have suffered any violent paroxysms 
of pain, the litter being but slightly disturbed; nor could I 
discover the slightest abrasion of the skin on any part of the 
body. During the last few days of his existence he had 
been heard to cough most violently at intervals. Once in 
my presence so severe was the attack that I feared that 
bronchitis would set in, unless remedial measures were em¬ 
ployed. No treatment, however, was had recourse to for 
the relief of his cough. A few days also before his sudden 
death, the animal being lame from a suppurating corn of the 
near fore-foot, it was thought advisable to convert his stall 
into a loose box, which was done by placing a bar of wood 
from the stall-post to the wall at the rear of the building, so 
that for the few preceding days and nights he had not been 
tied up in any way. The foot, likewise, was examined and 
dressed, but in doing this no coercive means nor restraint of 
any kind were employed, as the animal stood perfectly quiet 
during the operation. 
Being closely pressed for an opinion as to the cause of 
death, and at what time it had taken place, I gave it as my 
belief that the death had occurred about ten or twelve 
hours since, and in all probability from internal haemorrhage. 
The carman said that when he left the animal the night 
before, at about nine o’clock, he seemed to be in his ordinary 
state of good health. 
I was asked the question more than once, by one of the 
softer sex, whether I did not think it likely that when the 
shoe was removed and the foot pared a few days before, that 
the corn had been cut too much, because she had heard of 
such an event as death occurring in the human subject from 
the cutting of a corn ? I had some difficulty in satisfying my 
fair questioner that such could not be the case, for I knew, 
from personal observation, that when this animal’s foot 
was pared, the sensitive parts were not injured, and not 
the slightest haemorrhage followed the use of the drawing 
knife. 
