PARALYSIS IN THE HORSE. 
5 
late upon the most probable causes that primarily were 
in operation, any further than to suggest that a spontaneous 
softening of the cord might have been going on for some 
time before anything was observed to be the matter with 
the horse; or it may have been that the horse, natu¬ 
rally a very irritable animal, had unduly exerted himself 
when at work, and, when in a heated state, that he had been 
exposed to a current of cold air, thereby producing conges¬ 
tion of the vessels of the spinal cord and its meninges, which 
was followed by rupture of their coats and an escape of their 
contents, thus establishing a true case of spinal apoplexy. 
Case 2.—A case somewhat analogous, but not quite iden¬ 
tical to the above, has since come under my notice, which I 
will briefly describe. A hard-working cart-horse, the pro¬ 
perty of a corn dealer, w as taken from his stable in the 
morning apparently quite well. He was used for the purpose 
of delivering corn, and performed his work satisfactorily, 
but on his returning home, wffien within a few T yards of his 
stable, he evinced great difficulty in steadying his hind extre¬ 
mities, and before he could be removed from the shafts of 
the cart he fell, and was unable to rise. The owner requested 
me to see him, but being particularly engaged at the time, 
Mr. Pritchard, our demonstrator of anatomy, kindly offered to 
go and examine the animal. On his return he informed me 
that he considered the case to be one of complete paraplegia ; 
and although he could not state precisely its cause, he never¬ 
theless believed it to be a hopeless case, and consequently 
he had advised the owmer to have the horse destroyed, which 
suggestion was acted upon. The post-mortem examination, 
which was made soon aftenvards, fully justified such advice. 
The whole of the spine was brought to the College, and I 
carefully examined it. The bones w r ere first examined, espe¬ 
cially on their external surfaces, and aftenvards the spinal 
canal was laid open from one end to the other; but no 
injury, either to the bones or their connecting ligaments, 
could be detected. The theca vertebralis, however, w T as 
much distended, and dark in colour, which was found 
to depend on a large quantity of bloody fluid that had 
issued from its interior. The vessels of the pia mater were 
much engorged, and some of them had given way, thus 
allowing the escape of the blood, which, being mixed with 
effused serum, formed the serous fluid that distended the 
spinal sheath. The part of the cord from which most of the 
blood had escaped, and which had caused the largest amount 
of pressure upon the spinal cord, was located in the pos- 
