CORRESPONDENCE. 
437 
cular movements are improperly controlled by the power of volition. 
This is commonly called broken, strained, or jinked back by horsemen. 
It is not due to any fracture, nor always to any external injury, but 
is a progressive disease, arising from some alteration of structure in 
the spinal cord from diseases of the vertebra, or from granular degen¬ 
erative diseases of the muscles themselves .”—Williams’ Principles and 
Practices of Veterinary Surgery, 2d Ed., Edinburg, 1875, p. 247. 
Whether the above is also to be found in the first edition of 
the only text book we have in the English language or not, 1 do 
not know, but sufficient to say, it has been before the English 
public and veterinary profession from 1875 to 1878, and notwith¬ 
standing a long-continued, and in some instances bare-faced, pla¬ 
giarism of French veterinary literature, yet during all this time 
this most serious error has remained unnoticed and uncorrected, 
so far as my own knowledge goes. I say serious error , for, with 
all respect for Mr. Williams’ earnestness and worthy endeavor, 
the above statement from his work is in nearly every respect 
absolutely false, if an attempt to apply it to the condition which 
French veterinarians designate as immobilite.” 
The oldest French work which any present library offers me, 
is the noted “ Cours d’Hippiatrique,” par M. Lafosse, fils. Paris, 
1772. The noted opponent of Bourgelat, s. nd to my mind his 
great superior, tells us that up to this time no veterinary author, 
auteur hippiatrique,” had made mention of this disease—condi¬ 
tion—although the same was well known to horsemen and deal¬ 
ers, and classed with them among the conditions belonging to the 
class “ cas rehibitores ” of forensic diseases. As phenomena, he 
tells us the animals are very loth to mind, that they remain in the 
place where one places them, that if suddenly stopped with limbs 
in an abnormal position, they do not move from the same with 
any alacrity, that they eat slowly and irregularly, that the head is 
frequemly held for a long time motionless, etc., and that the 
malady bears some resemblance to that which mediciners describe 
under the cognomen of catalepsie. As causes he mentions fear, 
also that the condition may come to pass after a long sickness, also 
poorly developed and formed animals are predisposed thereto. 
He considered the condition as incurable, an opinion which sti),), 
continues and will probably to eternity. 
