I 
82 REPORTS OF CASES. 
and then taken from the ring, and shortly after to the stable at 
the Washington House, about one hundred rods distant, 
and, as I am informed, walked pretty well. Shortly after 
reaching the box stall in the stable, he laid down, and 
never afterwards was able to rise. The proprietors, think¬ 
ing the horse permanently injured, gave him to the hostler, 
with the understanding that if he recovered they were to have 
him by paying handsomely for him. The parties having the care 
of him considered him injured in the loins, and treated him ac¬ 
cordingly. The next morning, however, the hostler consulted me, 
and upon making a careful examination I found there was no in¬ 
jury to the back, and as the horse at this time was unable to raise 
his head but a few inches from the floor, although able to eat, I 
continued my search for the trouble, and soon discovered a slight 
swelling and tenderness over the third cervical vertebra, and con¬ 
cluding this to be the seat of injury, treated the case as one of 
severe injury to these parts. But from the appearance of the 
animal at this time, I certainly did not anticipate such an injury 
as it subsequently proved to be. From this time until the Satur¬ 
day morning following, the treatment consisted of fomentations 
by blankets wrung out of a hot decoction of hops, our patient 
eating grain food and taking a fair quantity of water from a bot¬ 
tle. With being turned over occasionally during this time, he 
seemed quite comfortable, and having *lived so long I certainly 
prognosed ultimate recovery. Hot under the circumstances be¬ 
fore described, could I entertain the idea of fracture, only as a 
possibility. On visiting my patient early Saturday morning, I 
found him to all appearances as well as the night before; but on 
returning to the stable at 9 a. m., I found the horse dead. The 
hostler said he left him eating, at seven o’clock, and when he re¬ 
turned at 7:30 he was dead, and had died apparently without a 
struggle. We made an autopsy, and found a transverse fracture 
of the third cervical vertebrae. I accounted for his sudden death 
from an effort to move sufficient to displace the broken bone, 
which had not taken place earlier. Extravasated blood was 
found around the seat of injury, as well as in the spinal channel. 
