STUD BOOK. 121 



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the origin of the nerve the brain becoming affected, and 

 universal and unbroken spasmodic action being the result. 

 Bleeding, physicing, blistering the course of the spine, and 

 the administration of opium in enormous doses, will alone 

 give any chance of cure. 



Epilepsy 



is not a frequent disease in the horse, but it seldom admits 

 of cure. It is also very apt to return at the most distant and 

 uncertain intervals. 



Palsy 



is the suspension of nervous power. It is usually confined 

 to the hinder limbs, and sometimes to one limb only. 

 Bleeding, physicing, antimonial medicines, and blistering of 

 the spine, are most likely to produce a cure, but they too 

 often utterly fail of success. 



Babies, or Madness, 



is evidently a disease of the nervous system, and once being 

 developed, is altogether without remedy. The utter destruc- 

 tion of the bitten part with the lunar caustic, soon after the 

 infliction of the wound, will, however, in a great majority of 

 cases, prevent that development. 



Pleurisy, 



or inflammation of the serous covering of the lungs and the 

 lining of the cavity of the chest, is generally connected with 

 inflammation of the substance of the lungs; but it occasion- 

 ally exists independent of any state of those organs. The 

 pulse is in this case hard and full, instead of being oppressed; 

 the extremities are not so intensely cold as in pneumonia; 

 the membrane of the nose is little reddened, and the sides 

 are tender. It is of importance to distinguish accurately be- 

 tween the two, because in pleurisy more active purgation 

 may be pursued, and the effect of counter-irritants will 

 be greater, from their proximity to the seat of disease. 

 Copious bleedings and sedatives here also should be had re- 

 course too. It is in connection with pleurisy that a serous 

 fluid is effused in the chest, the existence and the extent of 

 which may be ascertained by the practiced ear, and which in 

 many cases may be safely evacuated. 



The heart is surrounded by a serous membrane the peri- 



