MEGRIMS, OR VERTIGO. 127 



attack is not always this mild, however. He may fall as sud- 

 denly as if shot, or rapidly and senselessly run around a few 

 times, and then fall. He may either lie quite insensible, or 

 struggle with great violence. In a short time (perhaps five to 

 ten minutes) he will begin to recover, and will soon get up, and 

 proceed to his work, but not without some appearance of heavi- 

 ness and fatigue. He may never recover from the attack, and 

 die on the spot. A horse that has had an attack will be very 

 liable to the difficulty again. It is a disease not only dangerous 

 to the horse, but also to the driver or rider. Prudence would 

 dictate that a horse that has had an attack should not be used 

 under the saddle, or to the carriage or buggy. 



Causes. — Any thing that will interfere with the free return, 

 through the veins of the neck, of the blood sent to the head 

 by the arteries, may occasion megrims. It is caused, to speak 

 in common language, by "a rush of blood to the head." The 

 arteries send more blood to the head than the veins can carry 

 away. Violent exercise, when the weather is hot, causes the 

 blood to be sent to the head with too great force. A collar too 

 small, the throat-latch too tight, or the curb-rein too tightly 

 drawn, will obstruct the return of the blood from the head, and 

 thus cause it to be, as it were, partially dammed up in the blood- 

 vessels of the brain, thus causing pressure on the brain; and 

 which, either partially or wholly, prevents it from acting on the 

 system to supply that nervous force which is the cause of all 

 action of every kind. 



Treatment. — Immediately when the attack occurs, three or 

 four quarts of blood should be taken from the neck- vein, if any 

 one is handy who can bleed. But, if not, any person can bleed 

 the horse in the mouth by cutting the bars of the palate with a 

 knife. For performing this operation, see the article headed 

 ''Bleeding.'' After the attack is over, he should be gently used 

 and slowly driven, until he reaches home; and then a good 

 physic given, and the horse put on soft feed, or turned on grass. 

 He should not be worked until the over-distended blood-vessels 



