50 The Management and Treatment of the Horse, 



noted for affecting severely the mucus membranes of the 

 air passages, but in the epizootic of 1872, the most fatal 

 year in New York with only rare exceptions, nothing of 

 the kind occurred. Their phases varied in several points 

 of detail, but they had all many points in common. I 

 have before me a treatise on influenza in the horse, written 

 by Mr. Spooner, of Southampton, in the year 1837. It 

 contains not only his views, but also an ably written 

 essay upon the same subject, written by Professor Sewell. 

 A valuable discussion ensued, in which we have the 

 opinions of Professor Spooner, Messrs. Field, Turner, 

 Youatt, Dickins, Braly, Cheetham, Sibbald, and Ainslie. 

 The treatise also contains the opinion of Stewart William 

 Percival, Karkeek, and others. I have taken great pains 

 and trouble to peruse the whole of these valuable opinions 

 and many others, written in the Veterinarian, and works 

 of other authors, many of which are to be found in the 

 library in the South Kensington Museum, to many of 

 which I am indebted for my knowledge. I find Professor 

 Sewell and Karkeek and some other eminent men 

 attribute " influenza " to a meteoric or volcanic origin. 

 Many of them view it as inflammatory in its nature ; but 

 since that period times have changed men's views upon 

 this and many other diseases, and a change has also taken 

 place in the type of disease. We very rarely now see a 

 clear well-defined case of local inflammation. In the 

 present day the constitution of neither man nor animal 

 can tolerate the old-fashioned treatment. Enlightened 

 and scientific men have discovered that in the present day 

 a milder plan of treatment is more successful, to the 

 honour of Mr. William Haycock and Mr. E. A. Friend, 



