288 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CALIFORNIA 



that enough of those poison-particles should attach themselves to these mem- 

 branes, on the way to the lungs, and excite inflammation, with discharge of 

 matter, firstly thin and clear and afterwards thick and yellow. If they have 

 activity enough so to excite a local inflammation, how much more serious must 

 be their energy when absorbed through the lungs into the blood, and thence 

 transmitted to the brain. 



While, then, it may be very well to make some local applications to the nose and 

 throat to soothe that irritation, and empty the digestive organs of the horse by 

 mild purgation, the object of the cure can only be effected by counteracting the 

 influence of the poison on the blood and brain. This fairly attained, the local 

 catarrh will rapidly abate. The fatality of the disease will depend upon the 

 degree of intoxication, (empoisoumeut) and the celerity with which remedies 

 are applied in its earliest appearance. 



THE FATALITY OF THE THROAT AFFECTION 



Is less to be feared, for it depends upon the neglect to relieve the primary mal- 

 ady. The inflammation in the narrow passage to the lung's becomes dangerous 

 by superseding the primary in acuteness ; and then kills by direct sutfocatioa 

 or strangulation, rather than by the malarious influence on the blood and brain. 

 The rational and 



NATURAL TREATMENT 



To be derived from these views is to apply the same remedies to the horse as 

 ■would be resorted to for the human being. Due allowance being made for the 

 comparative differences between man and the horse, the same treatment which 

 is known to counteract malarious disease in the former, will also cure the latter. 

 It is not asserted that all climatic germ-poisons are identical, but that they are 

 so nearly allied in their action on living beings, that modifications of the same 

 general treatment will suffice to control them all. The same accuracy of dosage 

 cannot be obtained for the horse as may be attained for man, because the animal 

 cannot define his sensations, and the prescribers, horse-owners and farmers, are 

 novices in the art of medication ; they cannot estimate the differences dependent 

 upon age, strength, sex, and the degree of acuteness of the malady. Ou such 

 discriminations the animal must take his chance. 



Being satisfied of the identity of the disease with that of the human subject — 

 and the similarity of treatment, the next question would be the dosage or 

 the comparative quantity of the remedy. If this were estimated by the ratio of 

 bulk and weight, the relative dose would be from five to eight times greater for the 

 horse than the man. But the organ to be acted upon is the brain, which in the 

 horse bears no such proportion to that of man. Again, the simplicity and uni- 

 formity of food and habits of the horse, would render his nervous system much 

 more impressionable to active therapeutic agents. The same would be true of 

 the other functional organs of the animal. A safe inference would be the same, 

 or at the utmost double doses, would amply suffice. 



HORSE DISEASE IN CALIFORNIA. 



Horse disease is no new thing in California. It has existed with more or 



