ABSCESS IN THE BRAIN OF A HORSE. 311 
■which gave me great confidence in coming to ^he conclusions 
I did in this instance.’^ The symptoms mentioned by Mr. 
Wheatley in the above letter, such as a peculiar rolling of 
the eyes, twitchings of the muscles of the face, conjunctival 
membrane unduly injected, partial coma alternating with 
convulsive struggles, and comparative slowness of the pulse, 
are of themselves diagnostic of cerebral disturbance; and 
when it is known that the horse had only a month before 
been labouring under an attack of strangles, then the evidence 
of there being an abscess in or upon the brain becomes very 
strong. 
In this case- the symptoms were, collectively, sufficient in 
Mr. Wheatley^s opinion to warrant him in advising the owner 
to have the horse destroyed, and the result of th.e 2 ^ost-inortem 
examination certainly proved the justification of such a pro¬ 
cedure. I should, nevertheless, caution a junior member of 
the veterinary profession in too hastily adopting such a 
course wholly on his own responsibility. His reputation 
will be safer by allowing the disease to take its course. In 
some brain affections the lesions discovered after death may 
not be of that character which would convince the owner 
of the horse that he could not have survived their effects 
had he not been destroyed. And further, it is possible that 
some unfriendly practitioner may choose to assert in the 
presence of the owner that the animal might have been 
cured, or perhaps would have recovered if the disease had 
. been allowed to take its course. These remarks are, I think, 
worthy of consideration by the young practitioner, and I 
therefore trust I shall be excused for making them; doubtless 
by many they will be thought to be superfluous, but the 
nature of this case, and the circumstances connected with it, 
have induced me to make them. 
EXAMINATION OF THE BRAIN. 
The organ was not so much mutilated as might be inferred 
from Mr. Wheatley^s letter. The situation of the lesions 
and the character of the disease were so palpable that they 
could be determined upon without any difficulty. There were 
two abscesses in the brain, one at the supero-posterior, the 
other at the postero-inferior part of the left hemisphere of 
the cerebrum, neither of which, however, appeared to have 
been of long standing. The uppermost one especially looked 
as though it had been recently formed. I think it would 
be more consistent to describe it as diffused suppuration, as 
its boundaries were not at all defined. Not so, however, 
