418 IOWA DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE 
supply of pure air. If the weather is warm, out in the open air is the 
best place, but if too cold let him stand "with head to the door. Let him 
stand still; he has all he can do, if he obtains sufficient pure air to sus- 
tain life. If he is encumbered with harness or saddle, remove it at once 
and rub the body with cloths or wisps of hay or straw. This stimulates 
the circulation in the skin, and thus aids in relieving the lungs of the 
extra quantity of blood that is stagnated there. If you have three or 
four assistants, let them rub the body and legs w^ell until the skin feels 
natural; rub the legs until they are warm, if possible. When the circu- 
lation is reestablished, put bandages on the legs from the hoofs up as far 
as possible. Throw a blanket over the body and let the rubbing be done 
under the blanket. Diffusible stimulants are the medicines indicated — 
brandy, whisky or even ale or beer if nothing else is at hand), ether, and 
aromatic spirits of ammonia. Two ounces each of spirits of nitrous 
ether and alcohol, given as a drench diluted with a pint of water every 
hour until relief is afforded, is among the best remedies. Or, give a 
quarter of a pint of whisky in a pint of water every hour, or the same 
quantity of brandy as often, or a quart of ale every hour, or 1 ounce of 
tincture of arnica in a pint of water every hour until five or six doses 
, have been given. If none of these remedies are at hand 2 ounces of oil 
of turpentine, shaken with a half pint of milk, may be given once, but 
not repeated. The animal may be bled from the jugular vein. Do not 
take more than 5 or 6 quarts from the vein, and do not repeat the 
bleeding. The blood thus drawn w^ill have a tarry appearance. 
EECUEEEXT OPHTHALMIA (PEEIODIC OPHTHALMIA, OE MOOXBLIXDXESS) . 
This is an inflammatory affection of the interior of the eye, intimately 
related to certain soils, climates, and systems, showing a strong tendency 
to recur again and again, and usually ending in blindness from cataract 
or other serious injury. 
Causes. — Its causes may be fundamentally attributed to soil. On damp 
clays and marshy grounds, on the frequently overflowed river bottoms 
and deltas, on the coasts of seas and lakes alternately submerged and 
exposed, this disease prevails extensively, and in many instances in 
France (Reynal), Belgium, Alsace (Zundel, Miltenberger), Germany, and 
England, it has very largely decreased under land drainage and im- 
proved methods of culture. Other influences, more or less associated with 
such soil, are potent causative factors. Thus damp air and a cloudy, wet 
climate, so constantly associated with wet lands, are universally charged 
with causing the disease. These act on the animal body to produce a 
lymphatic constitution with an excess of connective tissue, bones, and 
mjiscles of coarse open texture, thick skins and gummy legs covered w^ith 
a profusion of long hair. Hence the heavy horses of Belgium and south- 
western France have suffered severely from the affection, while high dry 
lands adjacent, like Catalonia, in Spain, and Dauphiny, Provence, and 
Languedoc, in France, have in the main escaped. 
The rank aqueous fodders grown on such soils are other causes, but 
these again are calculated to undermine the character of the nervous 
