In the Stable, Field, and on the Road. 203 



either dead or dying from this disease, but in the 

 greater number of cases fever is a premonitory symp- 

 tom. In most case in the early stages of the disease 

 it is not very rapid, but it is heavy in its action and 

 indistinct, feeling vibratory under the pressure of the 

 finger ; in other cases it is hardly to be jierceived, so 

 languid is its motion. These are the cases that generally 

 prove fatal, as many men do not understand this disease, 

 and take no notice of it in its early stages, so that the 

 attack assumes a violent form before remedies are ad- 

 ministered. In many cases that have come under the 

 author's observation, the horse has been noticed to be 

 dull and off its feed for a day or two before anything was 

 thought wrong. Such is the ignorance of many men, 

 that they do not know that a horse is ill until it falls 

 down at plough or in its harness, then they think there 

 must be something the matter, and send for the 

 veterinary surgeon, who often arrives in time to see the 

 animal die, and he then gets the credit of not being able 

 to save the horse. We often hear cases of this sort 

 being talked about by those who have charge of horses. 

 This disease in its early stages is not very rapid, and is 

 followed by dilated nostrils, coldness in the extremities, 

 and heaving at the flanks, which clearly indicate an op- 

 pression in the breathing, differing, however, from the 

 hard laboured action of horses in fever, and also the 

 irregular breathing of broken-winded horses, appearing 

 as if two respirations were required for every inspiration 

 of air to the lungs. In inflammation the pulse is quick, 

 hurried, and irregular, caused by the pain which is felt 

 by the animal at each attempt to draw in the air, giving 



