95 
Pathological ^Contributions. 
FRACTURE OF THE OS CALCIS. 
An interesting specimen of a fracture of the os calcis, by 
which the point” of the bone was separated from the body, 
has been received at the Veterinary College. The patient, 
a thorough-bred yearling colt, being frightened by a dog, 
leaped at a hedge and fell, thus sustaining the injury. 
The parts had an appearance of the fracture having been 
caused more by the powerful contraction of the Gastrocne¬ 
mius externus, than by the force of the fall. An analogous 
case to this occurred some years since in our practice. A 
yearling bull in endeavouring to get into an adjacent meadow, 
in which some cows were at pasture, jumped at the ditch 
and fence which divided the fields, and fell backwards. The 
result was a fracture of both ossa calcis at the points.” In 
this case also the lesion appeared to have been caused by 
violent muscular contractions. 
PATHOLOGY OF THE TEXAN CATTLE DISEASE. 
• 
We are informed that recent researches into the pathology 
of the Texan cattle disease have shown that the malady is 
associated with the existence of fungoid organisms within the 
circulatory system. The fungi are said to destroy the red 
cells of the blood, and thus lead to alterations of the fluid, 
which unfit it for the maintenance of life. These parasitic 
organic bodies are said to belong to a class of fungi which 
thrive when excluded from the atmosphere. Should this view 
of the pathology of the disease receive confirmation, it will 
call for even greater care being observed against cattle being 
brought in contact with the excretions of diseased animals, 
or with any thing that they have been in close connection 
with. 
SPREAD OF THE CATTLE PLAGUE. 
From communications which have reached us it appears 
that the cattle plague prevails very extensively at the present 
time in Eastern Europe, and that great fears are entertained 
of its extension from Austria, to those states from which 
