508 
JAMES A. WAUGH. 
the amount of electricity received, intensified by violent con¬ 
tact with the street. The shock may be so severe as to cause 
instant death, or only partial paralysis with almost complete 
prostration for a few hours, or several days, weeks, or months. 
The pulse is slow, feeble and irregular; nostrils dilated ; res¬ 
piration slow and laborious; temperature slightly elevated; 
pupils dilated or contracted, and the eyes presenting a 
peculiar and unnatural expression, while sometimes strabis¬ 
mus is present, and at other times the eyelids are paralyzed ; 
perspiration rather free in the early stages; mastication and 
deglutition impaired, and some patients will require an hour 
or more to drink a pail of water. The head is sometimes 
held almost in a line with the neck, or twisted on one side 
with the eye pointing toward the ground ; and one ear may 
be held erect, while the other is lopped and paralyzed. Lo¬ 
comotion is seriously impared, and the animal stands with its 
feet wide apart as if trying to brace and steady itself, and 
when moved, the feet are raised only a short distance from 
the ground ; sometimes the patient is unable to assume a 
standing position, while others walk and act somewhat like 
human beings affected with locomotor ataxia , and stagger 
from side to side, and, if hurried, fall down and turn somer¬ 
saults in ail directions. The animal appears much frightened 
and nervous, and there may be a well-marked quivering of 
a certain set of muscles for several days or weeks after the 
accident. The functions of the digestive and urinary organs 
are somewhat impaired in the early stages, but soon regain 
their normal condition. The nerve cells are seriously in¬ 
jured, and the functions of the nervous system are impaired, 
and sometimes permanently damaged. I have not yet had 
any opportunity for post-mortem examinations on this subject, 
but Dr. Jackson informed me that Dr. Jennings and himself 
had found well-marked congestion of the mesenteric glands 
in a horse that had been killed by an electric shock received 
on street car-tracks, and the same horse’s heart was greatly 
hypertrophied, which probably accounts for the sudden death. 
Elevated wires are sometimes displaced and prove fatal to 
horses which come in contact with them. 
