CASES OF EMBOLISM OF THE POSTERIOR AORTA 
3 
soon able to resume his work, which he performed to all satisfaction 
for fourteen days. After that length of time the swelling of the 
sheath is found one morning to have returned. Diuretics are 
given, and he is put again in harness two or three days after, in 
apparent good health. After working for two days he is ridden 
by the coachman on a Saturday to Mr. Lockhart’s office. This 
gentleman finds him very stiff behind, and apparently in great 
suffering, for his body is covered with profuse perspiration ; his 
countenance is that of great pain, and he is walked back to his 
stable, a distance of a little over a mile. Yisited in the evening, 
he is comfortably in his stall, eating, and presenting nothing ab¬ 
normal. 
The following day, Sunday, Mr. L. is called in a hurry to the 
stable ; he finds the animal in great pain, with the left hind leg 
enormously swollen, sweating abundantly and suffering with 
diarrhoea without having shown any abdominal pains. The next 
morning the leg has resumed almost its normal size ; all pains 
have subsided, the animal eats well, lies down and gets up with¬ 
out difficulty, though he remains but a short time in the recum¬ 
bent position ; during the night he has passed by rectum a great 
quantity of blood (two or three quarts, says the coachman, who is 
an intelligent hostler.) 
Dr. .Robertson was then called in consultation. A doubtful 
diagnosis was made of some lesions of the internal blood-vessels, 
probably of the iliac arteries, and a fatal prognosis was given to 
this peculiar series of symptoms. 
From this day to the end of the week the horse remains pretty 
well in the same condition, at times worse than at others; still 
he remains restless, lies down and gets up oftener, and remains 
lying down for a shorter time than before ; he now begins to 
require a little assistance to rise from his bed. 
Having decided to have him destroyed, on my urgent request, 
to exhibit him to the class, and make a diagnosis, which we had 
expressed the opinion, was probably that of embolism of the pos¬ 
terior aorta or its branches, and to have the opportunity to make 
a more minute post mortem, the horse was brought to the hos¬ 
pital of the College on Saturday evening and placed in slings to 
