682 
OSSIFICATION OF MUSCLE. 
superior attachment was not much altered, but its inferior 
was ossified and fixed to the radius. Half an inch from this 
part was a short tendinous portion, which served as a false 
joint, and allowed the radius to be flexed on the humerus. 
I was informed that the animal, an old worn-out cart¬ 
horse, was brought to be destroyed. No lameness was 
observed to be present by the slaughterman, nor was anything 
said about the animal being lame; and it was only upon 
taking the flesh off the bones that he observed something that 
he had never seen before. 
This is all I know of the case. I had jotted down a few 
remarks about it, and other allied cases which I have met 
with, but I withhold them, so as to allow you to make such 
comments on the case as you may deem proper. 
Yours truly, 
Clement Stephenson. 
To Professor Varnell. 
In my introductory remarks I have stated that ossification of 
muscle is very unusual; such a change, however, does occa¬ 
sionally occur; but, as far as my experience goes, it more fre¬ 
quently takes place in the involuntary muscles than in 
those that are under the control of the will. Why it should 
be so, I will not now r venture an opinion. In the museum of 
the Royal Veterinary College, there are numerous specimens 
of this peculiar transformation of involuntary muscles. There 
are several cases in which the walls of the auricle of the heart 
of the horse are so affected, wholly or partially; and another 
very fine specimen of the kind has lately been added to the 
collection, but there is not one in which this change of tissue 
has taken place in a voluntary muscle. We are therefore 
the more indebted to Mr. Stephenson for a case wherewith 
to enrich the records of pathological anatomy, and also the 
shelves of the museum of the College. 
So completely had this muscle undergone change in struc¬ 
ture, that only a small portion of the upper tendon retained 
its normal character; the rest of it, including the lower 
tendon, being completely transformed into osseous tissue, 
although possessing as near as possible its original form. 
Mr. Stephenson states that the horse had been used for slow 
work, and was not observed to have been actually lame. This 
I can conceive to be true if the horse was made to travel no 
faster than a walk. The upper tendon was nearly normal, 
and its under surface played over the trochlea of the humerus 
without any impediment to its motion. The ossified muscle, 
although apparently one continuous bone, was nevertheless, 
