Tlic Country Gcntlcnimis Magazine 



>87 



^he Stable. 



INFLUENZA IN HORSES. 



DURING the last year influenza has 

 been extensively prevalent through- 

 out England, and in some parts not a little 

 disastrous, and it is now spreading north- 

 wards into Scotland, where for the past 

 six weeks a large number of horses have been 

 suffering from this complaint within a radius 

 of five miles of Edinburgh. It is satisfactory- 

 to be able to state that the epizootic, so far 

 as it has gone, has not assumed a fatal type ; 

 but, at the same time, it is proving a source 

 of no small pecuniary loss to owners of 

 horses, who, in several cases known to us, 

 have had more than half their stud put /lors 

 de combat from this cause at the same time. 



The febrile affection known as influenza, 

 as met with in horses, takes on such altered 

 forms, according as it occurs in different places 

 and at different times, that a description of 

 any one epizootic will often appear to apply 

 in a very limited degree only to what is 

 observed at another place and time. Thus, 

 one variety, attended by copious nasal de- 

 fluxion, has been called catarrhal influaiza ; 

 another, more particularly impUcating the 

 lungs, is designated typhoid-pneumonia, bron- 

 cho-pneumonia, or pleuro-pneumonia ; a third 

 form, associated with rheumatism — rheumatic 

 influenza; another, involving the digestive 

 organs, and in particular the \\nqx— bilious or 

 mucous fez'cr. That maladies so varied should 

 be included under the same name is some- 

 what anomalous ; but a propriety is seen in 

 the classification when we consider how the 

 disease passes from one type to another, as it 

 extends by degrees over the different parts of 

 the same country, and also the variations 

 observed according as it occurs in different 

 situations, healthy or otherwise. They all 

 agree, too, in one important feature, namely, 



the low character of the fever, which 

 seems to be the essential part of the 

 malady, and the extraordinary prostration 

 and unfitness for exertion by which it is 

 accompanied. 



It is a disease that invariably assumes 

 certain definite characters of a favourable or 

 unfavourable kind, as it finds its subjects in 

 good hygienic condition or otherwise. This 

 is perhaps more the case with this affection 

 than with any other with which we have to 

 contend, and hence the grand necessity for a 

 close attention to such conditions when this 

 disease prevails. This will often make all the 

 difference between a safe and speedy recovery 

 and a fatal issue ; and the owner will better 

 consult his own interests by an early attention 

 to this than by employing even the best pro- 

 fessional skill after a dangerous attack has 

 set in. 



Any case that debilitates the system renders 

 it a dangerous subject for influenza. From 

 the great depression of the vital powers 

 attendant on this disease, it is of primary 

 importance that these be not too far reduced 

 previously, otherwise the strength may be 

 insufficient to throw it off. Spare diet and 

 aliment of an unsuitable or unnutritive kind 

 are frequent causes of untoward results among 

 particular stocks. Another no less important 

 item is immoderate work. The health, it is 

 true, cannot be sustained at the proper 

 standard without a sufliicient amount of ex- 

 ercise to cause a healthy assimilation of 

 nutritive materials from the blood, and a 

 sufficient development of the various tissues ; 

 yet if the proper proportion is exceeded, the 

 normal assimilation is no less surely arrested, 

 and deterioration and waste of tissues neces- 

 sarily ensue. Xo quality of food or increase 



