ELECTRICAL ACCIDENTS TO DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 
507 
fox-hunting gentleman) and himself fully endorsed our opin¬ 
ion, as the mare only showed symptoms of lameness when 
under the saddle. 
We do not relate this case on the plea of any individual 
merit, but simply to illustrate the fact that frequently we 
have to depend so greatly on onr powers of observation, and 
go far a-field to reveal the true cause of not only lameness, 
but other ailments as well, that it necessarily follows the more 
knowledge of animals a man can acquire from his earliest be¬ 
ginning, who intends to follow veterinary medicine as a pro¬ 
fession, the more success is likely to attend his efforts as a prac¬ 
titioner. 
ELECTRICAL ACCIDENTS TO DOMESTIC ANIMALS, 
By James A. Waugh, V.S., Allegheny, Pa 
(A Paper read before the Western Pennsylvania Medical Association.) 
The application and utilization of electricity as a motor 
power for street railway coaches, and the use of cheap or 
badly constructed or defective arrangements in road-beds, 
prove sources of occasional serious accidental electrical in¬ 
juries to horses that are driven over these car-tracks, and come 
in contact with rails which have become surcharged with an 
excess of electricity, due to a settling or sinking of the road¬ 
bed, and breaking of the underground wires, which cause 
breaks in the electric circuits. 
Horses are often injured by attempting to cross from one 
set of tracks to another while cars are approaching in opposite 
directions, and especially when approaching river bridges. 
The horse happens to step with one fore and one hind foot, or 
both fore and hind feet at the same time, on the inside rails 
of the double tracks, and the metallic shoes on the horse’s feet 
act as conductors, which transmit the electricity to the ani¬ 
mal and causes it to rear or spring several feet up into the 
air, and then fall prostrate on the street; while other cases 
are shocked so severely that they fail prostrate and remain 
paralyzed. The character of the injury is in proportion to 
