414 
‘‘dropped elbow” in the horse. 
It was explained by the doctor as a recovery from rupture of 
the extensors of the forearm, and as the principal consequence 
of the lesion was atrophy rather than inflammation and swell¬ 
ing, I was perplexed to understand how recovery could possibly 
have taken place. When, therefore, another exactly similar 
case was produced, showing at the time of my examination, no 
pain, no swelling, no constitutional symptoms—simply an ina¬ 
bility to bear weight or to support the lower three-fourths of 
the leg, from the olecranon downwards, with distinct atrophy 
or depression in the mass of thick powerful extensors, I natu¬ 
rally felt interested to know the aetiology and exact location of 
the injury. At the time I was laboring with the idea of paraly¬ 
sis, and finally expressed that conviction to Dr. H., and subse¬ 
quently the specific opinion that the paresis existed in the 
radial nerve, which I find described in Dollar’s translation of 
Holler’s “ Veterinary Surgery,” page 457, where the author de¬ 
scribes symptoms gathered from some twenty clinical cases. 
This nerve supplies the muscles which were conceded to be the 
seat of the affection, and the absence of any symptoms or sequel 
of laceration, together with the sudden recovery, makes this 
diagnosis very clear to my mind. 
In Chanveau’s “ Comparative Anatomy of the Domesticated 
Animals,” the following paragraphs occur in the description of 
the radial nerve: “ In its course it successively gives off (i) 
Before leaving the internal face of the limb, to pass beneath 
the mass of the extensor muscles of the forearm, a very thick 
fasciculus, composed of several branches—descending and 
ascending. The latter bend round the terminal tendon com¬ 
mon to the latisimns dorsi and teres major, to become lost in 
the body of the great extensor; the others reach either the long 
and middle extensors, or the inferior portion of the principal 
muscle—the large extensor. (2) Behind the arm filaments to 
the caput medium and anconeus, and several cutaneous ramus- 
cules, disengaged from beneath the former muscle, that descend 
beneath the skin on the anterior face of that part. (3) In the 
antibrachial region, branches to the extensor metacarpi magnus 
and flexor metacarpi externus, and the two extensors of the 
digit. In brief, we see that the radial nerve is distributed to, 
and therefore stimulates, the whole mass of the extensor mus¬ 
cles of the forearm and foot, besides a flexor of the latter ; and 
that it endows the integument of the anterior antibrachial re¬ 
gion with sensibility.” 
I fully agree with Dr. Hanshew that, as a favorable progno- 
