VOL. XXXVII. 
No. 433. 
JANUARY, 1864. 
Fourth Series. 
No. 109. 
Communications and Cases. 
TWO CASES OF PARALYSIS IN THE HORSE, 
ARISING FROM SPINAL APOPLEXY, AND 
ONE RESULTING FROM AN INJURY TO THE 
SPINE. 
By Professor Varnell, Royal Veterinary College, London, 
I have thought that a brief account of the following cases 
may not be uninteresting to the readers of the Veterinarian , 
more especially to the younger members of our profession, 
as it will be seen that they are not of a common character, 
nor of frequent occurrence. The difference in the length 
of time, in the first case, as compared with that of the 
second, before the like result was produced, adds considerably, 
in a pathological point of view, to their value. 
To obtain as much of the history of the first case as I pos¬ 
sibly could, I wrote to Mr. H. Withers, the owner of the 
horse, who kindly forwarded me the following letter : — 
242, Oxford Street, Nov. 9, 1863. 
My dear Sir,—I n compliance with your wish, I send you the 
history of the bay horse you were kind enough to examine before he was 
destroyed, and subsequently to make a post-mortem examination of his 
carcass. I bought him, seven years ago, to work in a carriage ; he was 
then five years old, but was found afterwards to be of such an irritable 
and restless disposition, as not to be sufficiently quiet for the purpose. 
In consequence of this I put him to work in the ‘ forage van,’ at which 
he continued up to the 8th of September of the present year, when he 
was found to be lame. The lameness was but slight at first,; nevertheless, 
I sent him to the farm for rest. I should have observed, that about the 
12th or 13th of August last he was noticed to go slightly lame of the 
off hind leg. When he was sent to the farm lie was at once put into a 
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