288 



TJic Country Gcntlcinaiis Magadnc 



in its (luantity will compensate for undue 

 destruction of tissue by overwork, for the 

 very sufiflcient reason, that the system has 

 been exhausted, and is rendered quite un- 

 equal to the task of healthy digestion or other 

 normal process. Moderation and regularity 

 in both feeding and work cannot be too 

 strenuously insisted on. Insalubrious stables 

 are similarly injurious. The situation may 

 be low and damp, or exposed to north or 

 east winds, in which cases much may be done 

 by attention to the drainage and to the mode 

 of ventilation, so as to avoid rushes of cold 

 air while ensuring a sufficient fresh supply. 

 Cold draughts are more especially injurious 

 where the seeds of the malady have been 

 sown, and even the late east winds have been 

 keenly enough felt from the unusual suscepti- 

 bility to cold attendant on the disease. Im- 

 purities in the respired air might be much 

 more guarded against than they generally are 

 in agricultural stables. It is difficult to 

 correct such a widely prevailing abuse, yet it 

 ought to be strenuously faced, and rigid 

 cleanliness, as well as perfect ventilation, 

 insisted on. Horses can, no doubt, be in a 

 great degree rendered insusceptible to this 

 evil influence through their having been for a 

 length of time habituated to it, and from the 

 fact that it is only a limited portion of their 

 time that is spent in the stable, yet they can 

 never gain anything like immunity. An 

 animal breathing with the activity of the 

 horse, and having such an extensive surface 

 of delicate mucous membrane exposed to 

 contact with the air, cannot always with safety 

 respire air that is already loaded with organic 

 impurity. If injurious to the healthy animal, 

 such air becomes doubly so to the horse in 

 the incipient stage of influenza, when the air 

 cannot be too pure, nor the breathing too 

 much disembarrassed. 



Contagion and infection, too, should be 

 guarded against, as many cases of the disease 

 are undoubtedly due to these ; though it is 

 equally true that in a large proportion these 

 do not appear to act, but the malady is 

 directly dependent on the prevalent epizootic 

 influence. 



As seen in Edinburgh, the malady is 



ushered in by great dulness, prostration, and 

 disinclination for exertion. The patient is 

 slightly feverish, loathes his food, and is 

 noticed to shiver more or less intensely in 

 different cases. The nose, the tips of the 

 ears, and the legs are unusually cold ; water 

 runs from the eyes, and the animal becomes 

 more dull and lethargic, and often unsteady 

 in his gait. Often within a few hours of the 

 first notice of the illness the pulse is found to 

 have increased in number to sixty-five or 

 seventy per minute : it is easily compressed, 

 and imparts to the finger a peculiar thrill or 

 flutter, which is very characteristic. The 

 heart is found to beat violently when the 

 hand is apphed to the chest behind the left 

 elbow. At this stage the mouth is hot, there 

 is great thirst, the loins are rigid and unyield- 

 ing when pinched, the coat stares, shiverings 

 are frequent, the head is low, and the eyes 

 closed and suffused with tears. On examina- 

 tion the eyelids are usually found to be much 

 swollen, and their internal or mucous mem- 

 brane highly inflamed. The membrane 

 covering the front of the eyeball is in a 

 similar condition, so that a cloudiness over 

 the transparent cornea arrests the rays of light, 

 and prevents any examination of the interior 

 of the eye. The membrane of the nose has 

 at first a bright red glassy appearance, though 

 at a later stage it often assumes a darker and 

 more dusky hue. It is noticeable that both 

 this membrane and that of the eyelids usually 

 acquire a yellowish tinge, evidently due to a 

 torpid and unhealthy condition of the liver. 

 The breathing is increased, and in some cases 

 there are distinct indications elicited by 

 auscultation and otherwise of complications 

 within the chest. Coughing is by no means 

 a constant symptom, and is sometimes never 

 heard. The bowels are a little costive at the 

 outset, and there seems less tendency tO' 

 diarrhcea than is commonly the case in such 

 epizootics. 



It has not, as already remarked, proved a 

 fatal visitation, except in cases treated on the 

 now exploded and destructive system by 

 bleeding and purging. A mild aloetic laxa- 

 tive at the outset has not only not unduly 

 excited the bowels, but seems to have re- 



