ILL EFFECTS OF SMUT. 77 



In 1855 I witnessed in Lyons, France, many cases of disease and numerous deaths 

 among horses, from the great abundance of musty hay, gathered during an unusually wet 

 season. Scarcely a day passed but one or more cart horses were literally dragged to the 

 veterinary college. They moved along with hanging head, sunken eye, dependent lip, and 

 tottering gait, suffering from pains in the abdomen, and considerable tympanitis ; partial 

 sweats bedewed the body, the visible mucous membranes were of an intensely yellow 

 color, and the urine dark. On reaching a loose box, the patients were tied to a center 

 post, which turned as they moved round, and prevented them from dashing their heads 

 against the wall. The muscles twitched, the horses writhed in pain, and dashed about in 

 fits of delirium. Two hundred and forty-nine cases of this kind were admitted into the 

 infirmary from August, 1854, to August, 1855. The disease raged almost as an epizootic 

 from the month of September, 1854 ; and not only in the neighborhood of Lyons, but in 

 many departments of France. 



In the month of November, 1856, I was requested to see a Clydesdale stallion, near 

 Kirkcaldy, in Fife. This horse had, as is very usual on Scotch farms, been turned into a 

 large shed, and allowed as much hay as he would eat, and a couple of feeds of oats. On 

 moving the animal out of the stable, he nearly fell, and had evidently lost much of his 

 natural control over the movements of his hinder limbs. It was no new form of disease, 

 but one of those singular forms of paraplegia so commonly observed in herbivorous ani 

 mals, as the result of improper feeding and acute indigestion. The owner thought the 

 animal had seriously injured his spine. A cathartic dose of aloes, the discontinuance of 

 the use of hay which was musty, and a few doses of tonic medicine, restored the horse. 

 From that time I was consulted frequently, and in different parts, especially around Edin 

 burgh and on the border counties of Scotland, regarding this disease. A large number of 

 animals died, from ignorance of the nature and treatment of the disease, which disappeared 

 with the close of the season during which the bad crop of hay was being consumed. These 

 observations are recorded as mere instances of frequently recurring accidents, resulting 

 from the feeding of horses on musty hay. 



MUSTY OATS. 



Among the numerous sources of inconvenience and loss to owners of horses in Europe 

 and America, few are more troublesome than the results of feeding on musty oats. I have 

 known a large establishment, with nearly five hundred horses, the entire stock of which was 

 simultaneously affected. Attention was first directed to the unusual wetness of the litter 

 in the morning, and a great craving for water. The animals were weak, dull in harness, 

 and hollow-flanked. The wasting of tissues progressed rapidly ; and in all that had any 

 considerable exertion to undergo, the unthrifty look of their skin, well defined muscles 

 from wasting of the fat around them, and the leanness of the upper part of the neck, 

 where the great ligament suspending the head could be felt, like a rigid cord, constituted 

 very decided and alarming symptoms. Persistence in work resulted in a form of albumi- 

 nnria ; sometimes diarrhoea was readily induced, and a purgative would so contribute to 

 increase the weakness and prostration that the animal would die or fall in a state of hectic. 

 All this disturbance in the functions of nutrition, assimilation, and secretion ceased on 

 changing the diet, administering astringents or drachm doses of iodide of potassium for a 

 few days, and following up with a course of sulphate of iron, as a tonic, in very moderate 

 quantities, not exceeding half a drachm or a drachm to each horse per day. 



