440 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
fically. We have said that the primary cause was atrophy of en¬ 
cephalic substance from pressure of a fluid in the ventricles of the 
brain. The same may he caused from osseous or other tumors with¬ 
in the osseous walls, but this is very seldom. I believe Zurn, of 
Leipzig, has constituted one such case. In one sentence, lepto¬ 
meningitis, with extension to the choroid plexus within the ventri¬ 
cles, may be looked upon as the chief cause, with subsequent ex¬ 
udation of fluid. The normal amount of fluid found in the lateral 
ventricles seldom comes to 10 grammes in each. All amounts over 
that may be looked upon as abnormal. The amount of fluid may 
increase to 30-45 grammes, which is an excessive amount. From 
the above it will be apparent that we have not before us a condi¬ 
tion characterized by paralytic or stumbling movements of the 
posterior extremities, or a condition due in any way to “ a pro. 
gressive disease arising from some alteration of the structure of 
the spinal cord from diseases of the vertebrae, or to granular 
degeneration of the muscular substance,” or with a disease the 
treatment or description of which belongs in a work on veterinary 
surgery. 
As said by Lafosse, treatment is useless. It is self-evident 
that the condition in question is well enough known to our Eng¬ 
lish veterinarians, but has never been separated from meningo¬ 
encephalitis, to which, especially the former, it is the most frequent 
conclusion. The cause of this is, in my opinion, to be found in the 
very infantile development of forensic veterinary medicine by us, 
and all matters pertaining to the same, whether belonging to vet¬ 
erinary police or the forum of laws. We have work before us ? 
my American colleagues. Work and study, and study and work, 
before we can place ourselves on a level with our European 
brothers, and only by one well organized national institute can 
we succeed. As a matter of historic interest I place an appendix 
hereto, a very short resume from a once celebrated work, u Iiip- 
piater Expertus,” by Georgti Simonis Winter!, Norimbergae, 1678, 
page 22, where this disease, or better, its preeusor, is treated in a 
very drastic manner under the heading “ De Furore Melancholico 
et mankco quo equus obstupescit et subinde titubat.” It attributes 
the disease, or rather phenomena, to an unnatural accumulation of 
