275 
THE “ NASAL DISEASE*’ IN TIORSES. 
the similarity of the two affections. Another is found in the 
morbid appearances after death. A simple unsophisticated 
country lad gave the most graphic account of them. (C The 
bones were all as soft as a pear, and boiled all to pieces; the 
ribs were so soft they could be easily cut with a knife, or 
they broke like a rotten stick.” It was here the same. When 
the bones were placed in a cauldron to boil clean, they 
became so soft as not to bear their own weight, and the flinty 
lower jaw could easily be cut like a pear or a melon. It was 
thought there was no deficiency of earthy matter, and that 
the bones would bear boiling, a proof of the mistaken theory 
of the disease. The dark slate-coloured thin articular car¬ 
tilages, eroded at points or coated with velvety tufts; softened 
heads of long bones; tendinous adhesions easily detaching 
the bone at point of attachment; periosteum easily stripping 
off; bones easily cutting, with oozing of blood from cut sur¬ 
faces, as from a sponge ; filling of cancelli with red gela¬ 
tinous matter; the still compact unincreased size of shaft of 
long bones; the congested endosteum of areolar interspaces, 
or lining membrane of the spongy texture of the bones; the 
mottled appearance of the marrow—were all met with in the 
post-mortem examinations of Knavesmire and Retort, exactly 
as they were in the horses examined at the London Veterinary 
College. 
In his difficulty of determining the pathology of the disease, 
Mr. Varnell solicited the aid of Professors Sharpey and 
Harley, who, seeing signs of a disease peculiar and unusual, 
desired to investigate its pathology more fully, just as several 
medical men have expressed a similar wish here. 
The matter was brought before the Pathological Society of 
London, and after an animated discussion nothing was elicited 
to throw any light upon the cause which had given rise to 
the disease, which, apparently, was one that none of the 
members present were familiar with. The same thing has 
occurred amongst ourselves. 
Professor Harley’s drawings of the lower jaw-bone, in the 
Veterinarian , p. 577, vol. xxiii, exactly resemble the jaws of 
Retort and of Knavesmire; so also of the cartilages. Of the 
microscopical appearances we shall be better able to speak 
when Dr. Ralph has described the specimens left with him 
for examination; but the general appearances correspond. 
Thus, Professor Harley says, “ The lower jaw-bone was con¬ 
siderably hypertrophied in its transverse diameter. The pe¬ 
riosteum was readily detached, the osseous tissue was of a 
pink colour, and, on pressure, a quantity of blood oozed from 
its surface as if from a sponge. The osseous tissue was 
