Epilepsy from Propagated Irritation

The Veterinary Journal. treated them, what they assign as the cause of the condition, and how it could be prevented. I am aware that chloral and chloroform are gi ven in those cases, but I did not adopt that treatment. EPILEPSY FROM PROPAGATED IRRITATION. BY T. ASSHETON-SMITH 1 M.R.C.V.S. 1 CALCUTTA. THE following case of Epilepsy from propagated irritation may prove interesting to the readers of the VETERINARY JouRNAL:The patient was a bay Australian gelding, aged eight years. He had been subject to the fits for some eighteen months, but at first they were mild, and the intervals between them prolonged ; so the animal was kept at work, and on one occasion was attacked while in harness. He came to a standstill, and staggered a good deal, but did not fall. Subsequently the seizures increased in severity, until all the distressing symptoms of the disease were developed, and he scarcely recovered from one fit before another supervened. Under these circumstances I had him destroyed. On examining the body, in the double colon, below the sigmoid flexure, I found a large enchondromatous tumour, roughly kidneyshaped, and attached at the hilum to a point on the mucous lining of the bowel, which had become elongated and twisted to form a peduncle. The tumour, which weighed more than ten pounds, had thus considerable freedom, and must have been a source of great irritation to the system. On making a section of the tumour, I found that the central portion had undergone metamorphosis into true bon~>, resembling cancellated bone tissue; a space existed between the bony core and the cartilagir.10us shelJ, which was occupied by greenish purulent matter with a very offensive odour-no doubt a product of some degenerative process, and I believe the epileptic symptoms were largely due to the escape of this material through perforations in the cartilaginous outer covering into the bowel, and absorption into the blood. Some medical practitioners in this city, to whom I showed the specimen, concluded that the growth was congenital ; but I cannot reconcile this opinion with the late appearance of the symptoms. Strange to say, during life the animal exhibited no sign of bowel trouble.