156 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



actually gained in the two weeks, and the other, to all appear- 

 ances, did not lose a pound. This is m}'^ experience. 



Mr. B.VBBITT. As it is necessary to have a great many of 

 these facts, I wish to relate my experience. My horse came 

 down with the disease, and as I had great ftiith in homceopathic 

 medicine, I administered four pills. I did not have much 

 faith that those four pills would counteract the disease. I 

 noticed that the horse would not eat at first. I examined 

 him and found that his throat and tongue were sore and 

 canker3^ I warmed some vinegar and took a sponge and 

 rubbed his mouth and throat down as far as I could reach. 

 Then I took a bag, into which I put a kettle of vinegar, and 

 dropped a hot brick into it, and held it over his nose ten 

 minutes. AVhen I took it away his nose discharged pro- 

 fusely. I was astonished, and I followed that for four days. 

 After I got through with the steaming, I took a sponge and 

 cleaned out the nostrils. Following that course for four days, 

 night and morning, the disease was cured entirely. One of 

 my neighbors said that the horse was lame before, but after 

 that his lameness was cured. 



Mr. Goodman, of Lenox. Did he have the same remedy — 

 gin? It is not safe to differ from doctors, especially when 

 you expect to employ them. I believe both the phj^sicians 

 who have spoken of this disease agree that it is not conta- 

 gious. I suppose they mean by that that one horse does not 

 take it from another ; but it may be infectious. Now, from 

 the experience of a great many who have owned horses, as 

 well as from the observations I have made, I am of opinion, 

 without being a phj^sician, that it is in some respects a conta- 

 gious disease. Take the towns throughout the rural districts. 

 We have found that all the horses that went to the villaires 

 for purposes of business were attacked ; all the stage-liorses 

 that went to a town where the disease existed, came back dis- 

 eased, while those horses which were kept in the stable, and 

 did not come in contact at all with other horses, have been 

 exempt. It seems to me that the disease must be at some 

 time contagious, because we find that in stables where there 

 are a hundred horses, if one is attacked they will all have it ; 

 but in the countrj^ districts it is only the horse that comes in 

 contact with other horses that are affected by it that is at- 



