478 DISEASES OF THE BKAIN. 



a fit in a horse predisposed to megrims, although such causes 

 are not in some cases recognizable. Harness-horses in par- 

 ticular appear subject to the disorder ; this may arise from 

 the long continued constraint the bearing rein puts the head 

 to. I knew a horse who had a fit of megrims every time he 

 was put into harness, as if temper seemed to induce it/' 

 Any case of vertigo has been called megrims, though the 

 staggering may only be a symptom of tumour in the brain 

 or other organic disease. 



I restrict the term megrims, as Mr Charles Hunting of 

 South Hetton does, to a vertiginous affection only seen in 

 animals at work and when driven with a collar. The vertigo 

 never shows itself in the stable, or when the animal is 

 ridden ; even in harness it does not occur, if an animal is 

 worked with a breastplate and without collar. In Italy, 

 a horse subject to megrims is said to have Ihe " capo gatto," 

 meaning really as mad as a cat, and it is well known that 

 he is effectually cured by being used on the river side to 

 draw along the rafts of wood floated down the streams to 

 the sea, or even pulling boats up against the current. The 

 fact is, these horses are never worked with collars, and signs 

 of megrims are never seen in them. Some horses have such 

 peculiarly shaped necks as to require a special kind of 

 collar to prevent attacks of megrims, which are invariably 

 due to pressure on the jugular veins. Heat, action, exer- 

 tion, pulling heavy loads up steep inclines, are of course all 

 causes calculated to aggravate the vertigo, but they cannot 

 alone induce it. 



The cases of staggers seen in saddle horses, or which 

 occur at intervals even in the stable, are due invariably to 

 organic lesions, and should not be confounded with that 

 very simple and preventible series of symptoms observed 

 in carriage-horses, from being unable to wear tight or badly 



