SOCIETY MEETINGS. 
191 
Dr. Robertson then favored the Society with a very interesting 
paper on 
ELEPHANTIASIS OF THE WITHERS. 
A roan horse 6 year old was admitted April 12th, 1884, with 
a previous history of a tumor appearing on the top of the withers. 
This dated some three months before admission. It had not, how T - 
ever, prevented the animal doing his usual work until about the 
10th of the month. The swelling commenced in the region of the 
first dorsal vertebra, extended backwards to the eighth or ninth, and 
from the base of the scapula on the left side up to and over the 
median line; the tumor was well defined, movable fully six inches 
above the surrounding tissue ; the skin upon the shoulder was 
thickened, full of wrinkles and partly denuded of hair; there was 
a feeling of fluctuation, and on the 13th of April, Dr. Burget 
punctured the swelling. There was difficulty in penetrating the 
skin on account of its thickness. About a quart of reddish fluid es¬ 
caped through the trocar. The opening being enlarged, a small body, 
hard, white, the size of a bean, was washed from the interior, 
followed by others larger but of the same appearance. They 
were separate, capsulated, having the appearance of fibrous 
tissue; they numbered twenty, the largest measuring four inches 
in length, one and a half inches broad, and one inch, thick. 
Besides these separate growths there was a collar of thickened 
connective tissue extending from the seventh dorsal vertebra on the 
left side to the first, then over the spinal column to the right side, 
then backwards to the seventh. It was fringed with growths, the in¬ 
ner edge w'as loose, smooth, the outer attached to the subcutaneous 
tissue. Attempts were made on different occasions to dissect this 
tissue from its attachments; large portions were removed but some 
remained on the right side. The parts after the fifth day became so 
swollen that surgical interference was necessary. The patient lost 
his appetite, temperature became above the normal, symptoms of 
septicaemia set in, which condition caused his death on April 23d. 
During the progress of the case the question was frequently 
asked, What is the diagnosis ? The condition was an unique one 
and we were at last compelled to call it a case of elephantiasis. 
In veterinary literature this name is applied to thickening of the 
