784 THE HORSE. 



slight degree quickened and shortened. In other cases, the symptoms are 

 those of common fever, catarrh, or distemper ; and the characteristics of 

 true inflammation of the lungs appear late and unexpectedly. The cold 

 leg and ear, the quickened, not deepened inspiration, the disinclination 

 to lie down, and the anxious countenance, will always alarm the experi- 

 enced observer. 



Whatever may be the state of the pulse at first, it soon becomes 

 oppressed, irregular, indistinct, and at length almost imperceptible. The 

 heart is labouring in vain to push on the column of blood with which the 

 vessels are distended, and the flow of which is obstructed by the clogged- 

 up passages of the lungs. The legs and ears which were cold before, 

 become more intensely so — it is a clayey, deathy coldness. The mouth 

 soon participates in it, and the breath too. The bright red of the nostril 

 fades away, or darkens to a livid purple. The animal grinds his teeth. 

 He still persists in standing, alfhough he often staggers and almost falls ; at 

 length he drops, and after a few struggles dies. 



The duration of the disease is singularly uncertain. It will occasionally 

 destroy in less than twenty-four hours, and then the lungs present one con- 

 fused and disorganized mass of blackness, and would lead the inexperienced 

 person to imagine that long inflammation had gradually so completely 

 broken down the substance of the lungs. Such a horse is said to die rotten, 

 and many attempts have been made to prove that he must have been un- 

 sound for a great while, and probably before he came into his last owner's 

 possession, and some expensive law-suits have been instituted on this 

 ground. Let our readers, however, be assured, that this black decom- 

 posed appearance of the lungs proves no disease of long standing, but 

 inflammation intense in its nature, and that has very speedily run its 

 course. The horse has died from suffocation, every portion of the lungs 

 being choked up with this black blood, which has even broken into and 

 filled all the air-cells by means of which it should have been purified. 



More frequently the disease lasts a little longer. The lungs are suffi- 

 ciently pervious for some blood to be transmitted ; but the inflammation 

 is too great to be subdued, or proper means have not been taken to subdue 

 it ; and it runs its usual course, and proceeds to actual mortification, 

 and the lungs are found not only black, but putrid. This, too, would 

 prove recent and violent inflammation, and not any old and unsuspected 

 disease. This termination would be indicated, a day or two before the 

 death of the animal, by the fetid breath, and the oflfensive discharge 

 from the nose. 



A frequent, and to the practitioner and the owner a most annoying 

 termination of inflammation of the lungs, is dropsy in the chest. The 

 disease seems to be subdued ; the horse is more lively ; his appetite returns ; 

 his legs and ears become warm ; and those about him are deceived into 

 the belief that he is doing well : nay, the most skilful surgeon is sometimes 

 deceived. The anxiety to save his patient makes him hope for the best, 

 although the coat continues unhealthy, there is a yellow discharge from 

 the nostrd, the pulse is irregular, and the horse is frightened if suddenly- 

 moved, and especially if his head be considerably raised in the act of 

 drenching, and he rarely or never lies down. Many days or some weeks 

 will pass on, with these contradictory and unsatisfactory appearances ; and 

 a judgment of the result can only be formed by balancing them against each 

 other. At length the patient shivers, the old symptoms return, and he very- 

 soon dies. On opening him, both sides of the chest are found nearly filled 

 with fluid, impeding the pulsation of the heart, and the expansion of the 

 lungs, and destroying the horse by suffocation. 



