518 THE HORSE. 
where there is great violence, they cannot always be employed, and tho 
case must take its chance in these respects. ‘The die¢ should be confined 
to a few mouthfuls of hay or grass, with a plentiful supply of water. 
EPILEPSY AND CONVULSIONS. 
THESE DISEASES, or symptoms of disease, are not often met with in the 
adult, but in the foal they sometimes occur, and are not unattended with 
danger. The young thing will perhaps gallop after its dam round and 
round its paddock, and then all at once stop, stagger, and fall to the ground, 
where it lies, strvggling with more or less violence, for a few minutes or 
longer, and then raises its head, stares about it, gets up, and is apparently 
as well as ever It is generally in the hot days of summer that these 
attacks occur, aud it appears highly probabie that the direct rays of the 
sun playing on the head have something to do with it. Death seldom 
takes place during the first attack, but sometimes after two or three repe- 
titions the convulsions go on increasing, and the foal becomes comatose 
and dies. A mild dose of linseed oil is the only remedy which can safely 
be resorted to, and as it is supposed that worms will sometimes produce 
these convulsive attacks, it is on that account to be selected. Epilepsy is 
so very rarely met with in the adult, and of its causes and treatment so 
little is known, that I shall not trouble my readers with any account cf 
them. 
MEGRIMS. 
THis TERM is used to conceal our ignorance of the exact nature of 
several disordered conditions of the brain and heart. In fact, any kind 
of fit, not attended with convulsions, and only lasting a short time, is 
called by this name. The cause may be a fatty condition of the heart, 
by which sudden faintness and sometimes death are produced, or it may 
consist in congestion of the vessels of the brain, arising from over work 
on a hot day, or from the pressure of the collar, or from disease of the 
valves of the heart. Attacks reputed to be megrims have been traced to 
each of these causes, and as in every case the horse, while apparently in 
good health, staggers and falls, and after lying still for a few minutes 
(during which there is seldom an opportunity of examining the state of 
the circulation) rises as well as before, there is no chance of distinguishing 
the one from the other. The most usual symptoms are the following :— 
The horse is perhaps trotting along, when all at once he begins shaking 
his head as if the bridle chafed his ears, which are drawn back close to 
the poll. The driver gets down to examine these facts, and observes the 
eyelids quivering, and the nostrils affected with a trembling kind of spasm. 
Sometimes the rest will allow of the attack going off, but most frequently, 
the head is drawn to one side, the legs of that half of the body seem to 
be paralysed, and the horse making a segment of a circle goes down, lies 
a few minutes on the ground, and then rises as if nothing had happened 
beyond a slight sweating, and disturbance of the respiration. Treatment 
can be of little avail, however, unless a correct diagnosis is made, for 
remedies which would be suited to congestion would be prejudicial to a 
diseased heart. If the attack has happened while in harness, the collar 
should always be carefully inspected, and if at all tight it should be 
replaced by a deeper one. A diseased state of the valves of the heart 
ought to be discoverable by auscultation, but it requires a practised ear to 
do this, and the directions for ascertaining its presence are beyond the scope 
