SLEEPY STAGGERS IMMOBILITY COMA. 489 



SLEEPY STAGGERS IMMOBILITY COMA. 



Mr Percivall says, " The coma here intended to be intro- 

 duced into veterinary nosology, is the coma somnolentum of 

 human medicine, which, as near as a disease in man can 

 represent one in a horse, is the sleepy staggers of old writers 

 in farriery." 



This malady is far more common abroad than in the 

 United Kingdom, and has here been termed Immobility 

 from the animal's indisposition to move, and it has been 

 regarded as an acute hydrocephalus. Amongst the causes 

 enumerated by authors are heat, obstructions to the jugular 

 veins, mismanagement in feeding, &c. It will be found 

 that breed has much to do with it, and it is rather a coarse 

 kind of carriage-horse that is most liable to the disease. The 

 animal's head is not usually a good one, and narrow across 

 the forehead. The disease attacks middle-aged animals, 

 and very rarely, indeed, either young or old horses. 



Symptoms. A general listlessness in the stable, dispo- 

 sition to be sluggish in harness, especially when kept 

 standing a while without movement, a tendency to deep 

 breathing and slow pulse, are amongst the earliest and most 

 characteristic signs. The pulse is sometimes as low as 24 

 per minute, the respirations are also slow, the animal is in 

 good condition, and seems to have a decided inclination to 

 accumulate much fat. The organs of digestion are sluggish, 

 and the discharge both of urine and faeces is scanty and 

 rare. The slowness with which the animal feeds, the habit 

 of seizing food between the lips, and then dropping the head 

 in a sleepy fit, are very marked symptoms. When the 

 disease presents itself in an aggravated form, you are per- 

 haps told by the coachman that, whilst standing quietly in 

 harness, on a smack of the whip to wake the horse up, he 



