In the Stable, Field, and on the Road. 45 



nature of that cause is, our finest tests in science have 

 as yet failed to detect. 



The conclusions that I have come to are as follows: firstly, 

 that the state of the system which we are in the habit of 

 designating " influenza " is not of itself a disease at all ; 

 it is simply a sequence or particular condition of the con- 

 stitution in which there is an absence of the requisite 

 quantity of nervous energy, deranging the vital principle 

 and inciting irritability ; secondly, that the system does 

 not become affected through the medium of respiration, 

 but through the medium of the skin. I cannot bring my 

 mind to believe that epizootics of this nature are de- 

 pendent upon some disproportion of oxygen in the air, or 

 to the presence of sulphuretted hydrogen of oxone, nor 

 yet to any organic or inorganic morbific matter in the air. 

 I should rather attribute it to some change or modification 

 in the magnetical or electrical state of the atmosphere, 

 altering its relations to the living body. I will give you 

 my reasons for these conclusions. If the epizootic was 

 propagated through the medium of respiration, the tissues 

 which had come first in contact with the poison or irritant 

 in its unspent or undiluted form would, as a matter of 

 course, suffer the most. If a horse or a man takes an 

 irritant poison, of which he dies, what do we find ? Why, 

 intense inflammation of the mucous membranes of the 

 stomach and bowels. If a horse or man is half-suffocated 

 in the fumes of dense smoke, so that in a few days he 

 dies, what do we find ? Why, intense inflammation of 

 the mucous membranes of the air passages, and con- 

 gestion of the lungs : in either case we find that the very 

 tissues which have come into direct actual contact with 



