REPORTS OF CASKS. 
415 
The owner now called my attention to a curiosity, which was 
that, about fourteen inches below tlij3 opening I have spoken of, 
there seemed to grow out of a depression a bunch of white hair 
about as large as my finger, very closely packed to¬ 
gether,’ and eacli individual hair much coarser than the 
black hairs of the tail. I pulled a few of these and 
found they appeared to withdraw fully an inch from the 
tail, whereas the root proper was as any other hair. 
Concluding there must be a sinus, I pulled out the white hairs, 
inserted a probe, which passed to the opening fourteen inches 
above. Obtaining the consent of the owner, the sinus was opened, 
when imagine my surprise to find white hair growing in it from 
one end to the other, the hair of the upper part reaching nearly 
to the bottom, I having pulled out all that had passed through. 
Dissecting an inch of the upper part, took hold of it and stripped 
off the whole in one piece, sewed up wound with wire interrupted 
sutures, sent animal home and have not seen it since. Now, what 
caused the fistula ? The owner says there had been no swelling to 
his knowledge until brought to me; no discharge of pus from 
where the white hairs were; these last, he first noticed some six 
months past. 
My opinion is, that there was an injury received, pus formed 
and infiltrated between the superior coccygeal muscles until it 
reached a weak spot in the skin of the tail and there found exit, 
continued discharging until a fistula with indurated wall was 
formed, became plugged superiorly, and the pus then made dis¬ 
charged from the opening mentioned, when I saw it, then it 
again became stopped above this opening and caused the swell¬ 
ing. But, now, what caused the formation of white hair the 
whole length of the sinus, from where came the hair follicles to 
produce this hair? At its superior part it was probably due to 
the turning of the skin and the hair becoming bleached by grow¬ 
ing through the sinus. As nature produces no hair on parts that 
have been destroyed, even by a strong blister, then how could she 
produce it on parts that had not been covered with skin ? or could 
this fistula be present at birth, and the swelling and pus at the 
upper alone be due to injury? 
