JOHN FAUST. 
400 
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and distinct, we can with all certainty locate the disease in the 
nervous centres, the cerebrum and the spinal marrow. All dis¬ 
orders in the digestive organs, in the circulation and in the gen¬ 
eral nutrition are consecutive and entirely depending from the 
pathological alterations in the nervous system. The (edematous 
exudation in the spinal marrow and the cerebral substance would 
explain the difficulties in the movements of the body, in progress¬ 
ing, turning, backing, in the uncertainty of the gait and the pain¬ 
ful sensation over and near the atloid-occipital articulations, etc., 
as if the least movement of any part of the vertebral column 
would seem to cause a painful pressure upon the spinal marrow 
and its membranes. The coagulum in the fourth ventricle is 
probably causing a pressure upon the superior half of the medulla 
oblongata and might be the cause of the irritation of the roots of 
all the nerves emanating from that point, such as the seventh, 
eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh and twelfth pairs, and above all the 
fifth pair, which furnish the vital nerves to all the principal or¬ 
gans that enable the animal to correspond with the outside ob¬ 
jects, and to maintain life and general health in an efficient con¬ 
dition. Thus we can easily account for the perversion of sight 
as to distance, size and nature of objects, the weakness of facial 
muscles, the loss of taste and hearing, the diminished action of 
heart and lungs and the directly following decline of general nu¬ 
trition or general weakness. 
But effusion of blood in the ventricles and subarachnoid cavity 
can be found in other diseases of horses as well as in rattleweed, 
such as sleepy staggers or immobility and encephalitis. Truly 
they will produce different effects according to their degree, and 
can be expressed by convulsions and various degrees of violence 
and frenzy, stupor, coma or paralysis. But as yet no disease of 
the brains or their envelopes have developed the various symp¬ 
toms of irritability, in so many different degrees, as the loco-af¬ 
fection. If the coagulum in the ventricles and the oedematous 
exudation in the substances of the cerebrum and the spinal mar¬ 
row are not the direct cause of this disease, they might be the ef¬ 
fect of an irritatiug element that produces congestion in the same 
organ. What is then this irritating element? What is its nature? 
Is it a narcotic like opium ? 
