ABSTRACTS FROM FOREIGN JOURNALS. 
59 
injected, the ventricles were full of reddish serosity, the cerebral su¬ 
perficial blood-vessels were engorged and the encephalon when cut, 
appeared in its whole thickness, covered with red spots or puncta of 
a characteristic aspect; each of these spots was formed by a hemor¬ 
rhagic effusion. The blood-vessels have no atheromatous, varicuous 
oraneurismal alterations, but are surrounded by a mass of small crystals 
which are found also in the blood. These are little and thin lamellae, 
trapezoid, rhomboidal or parallelogrammic in shape, a characteristic 
form, they are insoluble in water, but very much so in alcohol and 
ether, they are pure cholesterine.” 
After giving the chemical history of this substance, its mode of 
formation, its action on the blood, &c., Mr. Megnin draws the follow¬ 
ing conclusions: 
1st. “The horse is subject to a diathesis which has a great anal¬ 
ogy with the uremic diathesis of man, and which may be called choles¬ 
teric diathesis from the produce which causes it. 
2d. The accidents, consequence of this condition, are either the 
production, more or less rapid, of tumours with elements of cholesterine 
(cholesteatoma of the brain, entheroma of blood vessels) which pro¬ 
duce death sooner or later; either the deposits under solid form, in the 
blood of excess of cholesterine, which brings on embolims of the brain, 
or the lungs, and sudden death. 
3d. In cases of paraplegia, pulmonary or cerebral congestion, 
taking place in fat subjects and followed by rapid death, the blood 
ought to be chemically and microscopically examined to find the true 
cause of death. 
4th. Therapeutics being unable to resist the fatal sequelae of 
cholesterimia, all that can be done is to try to oppose the development 
of obesity in an animal, especially when advanced in age. ( Recueil 
de Medicin Veter.) 
AMPUTATION OF THE METACARPUS IN A COW. 
The subject was a two years old, short-horn heifer; at the arrival 
of the Veterinary Surgeon, Mr. W. E. Litt, the animal was found 
standing on three legs, with a fracture of the off fore leg, about the 
middle of the metacarpal bone. Anxious to save the life of the poor 
beast, it was decided to amputate her leg. After being cast, a tourni¬ 
quet applied above the knee to press on the radial artery, an incision 
