\ CONSUMPTION^. 113 



comes more rapid and laborious, with slight heaving at the 

 flanks. The cough becomes worse, but short and dry; the 

 pulse will be found small and increased in frequency. The 

 horse is down in spirit, and is evidently sick. Pressing on 

 the spaces between the ribs will show that there is tenderness 

 in the chest. Dj'speptic symptoms are present, the appetite 

 being sometimes good, but at other times very poor. As the 

 disease advances, all the symptoms become aggravated; the 

 horse loses strength rapidly, the cough becomes worse, the 

 breath very offensive, and a thick, corruption-like matter is 

 discharged from the nose. Diarrhea, dropsical swelling of the 

 legs, and great wasting of the flesh take place, and death re- 

 lieves the doomed victim. Such are the ordinary symptoms 

 of consumption, and it is hoped they will be sufficient to enable 

 the ordinary observer to suspect the existence of the formida- 

 ble disease. But many of these sj^mptoms may attend other 

 maladies, and hence the horse should not be too hastil^r 

 condemned as the subject of consumption. 



Causes.— There can be but little doubt consumption is one of 

 the diseases of the horse peculiarly the result of domestica- 

 tion. It is much more common in the cities than in country 

 places, doubtless owing to the greater impurity of the air in. 

 the city; the city air being deficient in oxygen and over- 

 charged with carbonic-acid gas, thus, by necessity, producing: 

 a carbonized condition of the blood, which is the very cause- 

 of tuberculous disease, whether it seats itself in the lungs or 

 any other organ. Ill treatment, as a close, filthy, confinedi 

 stable, may produce this disease. A peculiar form of body- 

 may render one horse more liable to it than another. This 

 peculiar form may be transmitted from sire or dam to the off- 

 spring. If they have feeble lungs, of course their stock will 

 have such. Leggy, thin-chested horses, with naturally feeble 

 lungs, can not resist the causes of consumption as well as horses- 

 with large chests and powerful lungs. 

 Treatment— From what has been said above, it is evident 

 8 



