ordered in the morning.-4 P.M. threw up aloës 3j in a clyster: after this he voided an immense quantity of wind.-6 P.M. scald belly.-10 P.M. V.S. five quarts. Despite all our efforts, the animal died during the night.

Post-mortem appearances.—Stomach highly inflamed and distended with gram-small intestines inflamed-colon filled with dry undigested food, inflamed, and very much discoloured. I attribute this horse's death to want of exercise and bad grass. A number of horses (nine) were attacked at the same time, and with exactly the same symptoms; but all these got well.

THE VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION.

JANUARY 7, 1845.

THE Members resumed their Meetings this evening, pursuant to adjournment over the Christmas holidays.

The PRESIDENT in the Chair.

Mr. Jeffraeson presented to the Library his work on Ophthalmia," and on the table were laid the Continental Journals for the months of November and December 1844.

CASE OF ENCYSTED PILARY TUMOUR.

By Mr. R. READ, M.R.C.V.S.

My dear Sirs, Crediton, December 28, 1844. I HAVE sent you an encysted pilary tumour, and will endeavour to give you my opinion of the formation of these growths, more particularly since cases of the kind must be rare at the College.

This tumour was taken out, about a week since, from the shoulder of a cow, embedded in the centre of the muscle of the shoulder, and leaving, when removed, a corresponding concavity. It had no connexion with the external skin. I have not disturbed its contents, as I have had two or three opportunities of examining others so as to ascertain their nature. The hair in these cysts is white, and there is the same detachment of the hair annually as

takes place from the skin externally. Mixed with the hair in the cyst is also the same kind of sebaceous matter as externally secreted—the dandriff, or exfoliation of the epithelium of the skin. You will also have the successive moultings or periodically detached portions; and the hair is so very singularly conglobated that, if you carefully untwist the mass, and then take the aggregate number of the pilary exfoliations and divide by the number 2, you will have nearly the number of years the cyst has been forming. I have seen them from the size of a walnut to the present one. In the very small ones it is easy to calculate their age, but in this one you will have some trouble.

Reasoning from analogy, it is probable that this tumour would have attained a very considerable size had not the animal been slaughtered; since every year would have increased its volume, as the hair could not have been expelled or absorbed; yet there is no doubt but that some of the liquids of the cyst might have been taken up by the absorbents. It is singular, also, that the hair in those cysts conglobates, similar to those hair-balls or Ægagropilies which are found in the stomachs of ruminants.

I trust this subject will prove of sufficient interest to appear in THE VETERINARY RECORD.

I am, your's truly.

The President.-All the tumours of this nature which I have examined, I have found to exist either in the cellular interstices of the muscles, or in the subcutaneous cellular membrane; and I have met with many of them not only in the ox, but also in the dog, horse, and other animals. The manner of their formation has not, I think, up to the present time, been satisfactorily explained. Some have imagined the hair to be first forced among the softer structures by external violence, and afterwards to be there confined by the healing of the orifice through which they entered. Such an hypothesis, however, shews but little ingenuity of thought, and it is open to so many and such obvious objections, that it cannot even claim a moment's consideration. Mr. Read's theory I am inclined to view as correct; and that I should do so is not, perhaps, surprising, when our Secretary can witness for me that I have for years entertained similar opinions concerning the de

velopment of these singular growths. In this case, as in the one I noticed at a previous meeting, the sac has taken on an integumental character, and from its inner surface the hair is seen to be growing as from the true skin. From this, as from other parts, the hair would, we have every reason to conclude, be subject to the shedding process; and thus its accumulation in the sac is rendered easy of explanation, because from its nature hair is incapable of being absorbed, and very resistant of ordinary decomposing influences. Mr. Read's opinions in all respects deserve attention; but he says that the hair of pilary tumours is always white—a remark which does not exactly accord with my observations, I having found it rather pale-coloured than altogether devoid of tint, though in every case thin and weak. Mr. Read also ingeniously supposes that the shedding within the sac regularly takes place with the moulting of the external coat, and thus he states with confidence that the length of time which one of these pilary tumours may have existed can be easily ascertained by observing the different layers of deposit. I, however, cannot in the present instance perceive the arrangement to which he refers; nor have I ever remarked it in other tumours of this character which I have examined. I therefore should require further proof before I fully acquiesced in this view. The coat of an animal is at particular seasons shed and reproduced, and while it is obvious that the hair is also shed from the inner surface of these sacs, yet I think we are not warranted in assuming that this process takes place in the same order as from the true skin; for although these abnormal structures simulate integument, yet they essentially differ from it in being removed from all the influences and exciting agents to which the outer covering of the body is exposed. Nevertheless such speculations deserve attention, and by the investigation which they challenge are of benefit to science.

[We believe that Mr. Read is the first English veterinarian who has placed on record an instance of these singular growths, and the continental journals are almost silent respecting them. Conversing with Dr. Goodfellow about their formation, he kindly offered to institute an examination of the one we were put in possession of, the result of which is as follows:-]

London Fever Hospital, 10th May, 1845.

My dear Sir, I have carefully examined the hairs contained in the tumour, a part of which you were so good as to send me, as well as those that were still attached to the wall of the cyst. I find them to possess the usual anatomical constituents of the normal hair belonging to one of the order of animals from which the tumour was removed.

The attached extremity is of a bulbous form, and is lodged in a membranous capsule or follicle. From its attachment to the cyst it gradually diminishes in size, and terminates at its free extremity in a mere point. Along the centre of the hair is a tube which extends from near the bulb to within a short distance of the free extremity, its diameter being greatest near the bulb, and gradually becoming less in its course towards the apex. The wall of the tube is structureless, except at a short distance from the bulbous enlargement, where may be observed a few longitudinal and very delicate creasings, and it is covered by irregular quadrilateral scales, which encircle the hair in a series of rows, extending from the root to the apex; the scales being largest near the former, and diminishing in a ratio with that of the other constituents of the hair as they proceed towards the latter.

With respect to the Structure of the Cyst itself.-On its free or internal surface there is a layer of epithelium, the flattened cells of which have a polygonal form. This layer of epithelium rests upon a transparent homogeneous membrane, which appears analogous to, and closely resembles the basement layer of serous and mucous membranes. Attached to the layer immediately external to it, the principal thickness of the wall of the cyst chiefly, if not entirely, consists of a series of layers of the white fibrous element; for on submitting a thin layer of it to the influence of acetic acid, the beautiful wavy and longitudinal fibrous appearance was entirely destroyed. No other structure could be detected. The tissue by which this cyst was attached to the surrounding parts, I found to possess all the usual characters of true filamentous tissue.

The contents of the tumour appear to be of a fatty nature. When submitted to the microscope, a crystalline mass may be observed, resembling the flakes of stearine thrown down from a

solution of this substance in boiling alcohol on cooling, except that it has a yellowish colour. Perhaps a chemical analysis would lead to some interesting result as to its composition.

Regretting that time will not allow me to enter more fully into this subject, I remain, my dear Sir, Your's very truly,

W. J. T. Morton, Esq.

S. J. GOODFEllow.

A CASE OF OBSTRUCTION AT THE BASE OF THE COCUM CAUSED BY A LARGE CARCINOMATOUS GROWTH.

The President.-Most of the members present are aware that the morbid parts before me were taken from a horse which was destroyed yesterday in this infirmary. The case is one possessing much interest, and well deserving your attention. The horse was thirty years of age. He had been the property of his last owner fourteen years, during the whole of which period he had frequently come under my observation, as he was regularly shod at the College, and I knew him to be a remarkably healthy animal up to within about six months, when he was observed to fall off in condition, though his appetite still continued to be good. He was sent to the College to be treated, simply on account of loss of condition. As no symptoms of acute disease could be detected, it was suspected that some irregularity of the molar teeth might interfere with mastication. The most careful examination of the mouth, however, developed nothing confirmatory of this view. The loss of condition was therefore attributed to a want of tone in the organs of digestion, consequent upon extreme old age. His corn was ordered to be bruised, and the food otherwise prepared, and such medical treatment was adopted as seemed likely to invigorate the system, and, when the animal left the infirmary, he was in some degree improved. From that time up to a day or two before he was destroyed the horse continued at work, and it was remarked that only within the last three or four months had the signs of general decay become more conspicuous. The animal then rapidly fell off in condition, presenting, nevertheless, no symptoms of acute