416 
^CHOLESTERfNE TUMOUR OF THE BRAIN. 
America has been forbidden, it having been found infested 
with Trichinae. 
CHOLESTERINE TUMOUR IN THE BRAIN. 
By C. E. Smith, Army Veterinary Department. 
Some weeks after the infliction of a severe wound in the 
flank, the recipient, an aged, very vicious mare, showed 
signs of “ Trismus/' accompanied by general stiffness. These 
symptoms abated considerably by the fourth day, the patient 
lying down and rising with facility; but on the morning of 
the fifth she was found unable to rise. The fore legs were 
rigidly extended, the rigidity occasionally giving place to 
chronic spasms and quivering; the “ gluteal muscles ” were 
firm and the hind legs semi-flexed, seeming to be the sub¬ 
jects rather of paralysis than of tonic spasm. Chronic spasms 
of the cervical muscles also caused a frequent nodding action 
of the head towards the chest. The whole body surface wa^ 
morbidly insensible to irritation, and the animal lay almost 
passive until the evening, sweating profusely during the 
whole time, when death suddenly resulted from asphyxia. 
Autopsy revealed, in addition to the characteristics of this 
mode of death, considerable congestion of the neurilemma of 
the crural nerve supplying the injured parts. Some of the 
morbid appearances in the brain—i.c., the presence of a large 
quantity of serum, both in its substance and in the lateral 
ventricle, causing the organ to appear unnaturally large, 
general congestion, and considerable hardness—were doubt¬ 
less due, in great measure, to the mode of death ; the sub¬ 
servient cause being probably the existence of a rough, 
orange-coloured body, about the size of and resembling a 
raspberry, enveloped in the plexus choroides, and embolism 
of the vessels at the anterior part of the medulla oblongata, 
between which and the cerebellum, limited anteriorly by the 
middle peduncles, a considerable deposit of dark red and 
spongy matter, resembling a heap of almost black granula¬ 
tions, had taken place. This deposit presented a very novel 
appearance, being mottled with small pearly scales, which, 
when examined microscopically, proved to be formed of crys¬ 
tallised cholesterine. The basis on which they rested seemed 
to consist of nucleated cells, possibly blood-corpuscles, and 
larger, oval, granular cells ; its black and red colours depend¬ 
ing upon some change in the effused haemoglobin. The tumour 
in the plexus choroides, which was placed between the 
