OF FARRIERY. 



113 



meaning of burnt alum, I will tell them how 

 to produce it, in case they make up the above 

 prescription themselves, supposing they might 

 live at some distance from a regular practi- 

 tioner ; for the preceding prescription, buy an 

 ounce of common alum, then place in your 

 fire-shovel, and put it on the fire, when the 

 heat will evaporate the watery matter from 

 the alum, leaving you the burnt alum, or what 

 is termed, alumen ustum. 



ON STRANGLES 



It is most strange, that so bad a definition 

 of the disease, called strangles, as jet has 

 been given to the public, though all veterinary 

 writers agree, that every Horse is liable at 

 some period or other to take on the disease, 

 we may say scarcely any Hoise is known 

 to escape ; they are even subject to it at all 

 times of life, but, the periods of attack are 

 mostly when ri'sing three or four years old *; 

 Horses at that time of life, are generally taken 

 in from grass, though colts at grass frequently 

 become affected ; but, Horses removed from 

 grass to a vvarm stable, are much more liable to 

 take on the disease, clearly showing, it is the 

 heated atmosphere combined with the stench 

 of the dung and urine, producing infiamma- 

 tion and suppuration of the submaxillary 

 glands. 



I shall not presume to introduce any thing 

 dictatorially decisive upon the subject, but 

 submit to the consideration of others what 

 appears to me to contain every just reason 

 that can be assigned for the appearance of a 

 distemper, attacking each subject to a certainty 

 at different periods without contagion, or any 



* I once hiiil a mare of my own affected with strangles 

 at s.ixteen vears of'siffc. 



cause hitherto established, but that it is so. 

 For my own part, after affording it every 

 degree of consideration, there is absolutely 

 but one rational cause to be offered why 

 Horses become subject to this disease, and 

 that is, as before stated, inflammation and sup- 

 puration of the submaxillary glands ; and this 

 is brought on nine times out of ten when the 

 the Horse comes into the stable, either to be 

 broken into saddle or harness, proving that 

 impure air to be the general cause, for in those 

 cases vvhere it takes place out of doors, poverty 

 is then the principal cause, producing extreme 

 debility ; and most frequently, these Horses 

 so attacked, and in so weak a state, generally, 

 or at least most frequently, become victims to 

 the disorder, and not unfrequently when 

 debility reduces young Horses to a state 

 of almost starvation, it will generate into 

 glanders. 



Having introduced thus much towards the 

 elucidation of the cause, I will proceed to the 

 symptoms. The first attack generally com- 

 mences with a dull sluggish heaviness and in- 

 activity, the Horse becomes dispirited, loses 

 his appetite, is frequently seized with a hollow 

 husky cough, occasioned by the irritability of 

 the inflamed glands, and consequetitly sore 

 throat. To excite a degree of moisture in the 

 mouth that may allay this disagreeable sensa- 

 tion, he is often picking his hay, but eats little 

 or none ; a degree of symptomatic fever comes 

 on, and a consequent claminess and thirst is 

 perceptible, but the Horse appears to have great 

 difficulty of swallowing water. As the disease 

 advances, he Ijecomes proportionally Ian2:uid 

 and inattentive, a swelling of the glands between 

 the jaws becomes apparent, which is at first very 

 hard, exceedingly painful, and visibly increasing. 

 He now swallows with great difficulty, heaves 

 2 F 



