36 The Management and Treatment of the Horse, 



to another drinking, and when they come home they 

 leave their horses wet and dirty while they are drinking 

 there little sense away at a public-house bar. There is 

 another cause of the horse catching cold and coughing, 

 and this is to be seen every day at Newmarket — that 

 place where they think they cannot be taught anything, 

 and that to them everything is but a tale already told. 

 The great cause of cold-catching is not, as most people 

 suppose, by going out of a warm stable into the cold, but 

 by coming direct from the cold into the hot air of the 

 stable, and causing a too sudden relaxing of the pores 

 of the skin, making the skin too sensitive, when the 

 least draught causes a check and chill, and the animal 

 soon commences to cough. As I have before stated, 

 after washing the horse in the stall or box he has to 

 sleep in, the damp of the floor rises and penetrates 

 the skin, which produces influenza (by depriving it 

 of animal electricity), the worst complaint the horse 

 is subject to, a short history of which will not be out 

 of place here. 



Influenza is no new complaint ; it was well known 

 to our forefathers. There is very little doubt but it was 

 known to the Romans, and was called the plague. We 

 have authentic accounts of influenza from Solleysel, a 

 celebrated veterinary surgeon of the German army, in 

 the year lG-i8. It began by fever, great prostration, tears 

 running from the eyes, and an abundant mucous dis- 

 charge of a greenish colour from the nostrils. The horses 

 experienced loss of appetite and the ears were cold, and 

 few of those attacked recovered. The treatment adopted 

 was with a view to neutralise the malignity of the poison 



