280 
FRACTURE OF BOTH HUMERI. 
general appearance of the bones would rather indicate that 
she was not quite so old. At this youthful period bones are 
not so susceptible of being fractured as they are later in life, 
unless predisposed by disease. Judging, however, from 
those sent there does not appear to be any diseased condition 
of the osseous tissue. Mr. Peech remarks in his communica¬ 
tion ‘‘that the case is exceedingly unusual,” with which ob¬ 
servation I fully concur, and for this very reason it appears 
to me that an attempt should be made to explain the 
causes — predisposing and exciting — which produced the 
fracture. It is said that on the fifth of February, the horse- 
breaker found the mare to be slightly ungovernable^ which 
induced him to use rather harsh means for the purpose of 
subduing her. It is not unlikely that he may have carried 
these means to an injudicious extent, whereby her health was 
interfered with. That such was the case we may infer from 
the remark of the bailiff—namely, that on this same evening 
she refused her food. Notwithstanding this she was taken 
out again on the following day, and itap[)ears that the breaker 
was not very judicious in his treatment of her on this occa¬ 
sion, for he galloped her over ploughed fields, and forced her 
to take numerous leaps. '^J'hese she at first refused to take, 
being perhaps conscious of her inability to perform the task, 
and which, from her being ill, we may suppose really was the 
case. The ap{)eal made, however, to her merciless rider, in 
nature’s dumb language, was not interpreted by him, for she 
was still urged on. 
The poor mare, exhausted from illness, and the undue exer¬ 
tion she had been made to undergo, was now so prostrated 
that she could scarcely walk, and eventually, as we learn, she 
fell on the road. Under these circumstances it does not re¬ 
quire much reflection, at least I think not, to understand 
how the ligamentous tissue of the vertebrae, and, in the same 
region of the back, the spinal cord and its membranes, be¬ 
came injured in the way they were found to be by Mr. Peech. 
Expenditure of nervous force, from w hich would arise dimi¬ 
nished muscular contractility, may be looked upon as the 
predisposing cause of these lesions, w'hile the severe exertion, 
added to the weight she had to carry, must be considered as 
their immediate or determining: cause. 
In this exhausted, half-paralysed condition, we can in our 
imagination follow’ the poor creature upon the road on her 
way home, being still ridden by the breaker, excepting for a 
very short distance before she fell. It is questionable whether 
he became conscious of the mare’s inability to carry him, or 
whether he merely consulted his own safety, for he remarked 
