128 NAVIX ox THE HORSE. 



have regained their usual tone or strength, or apoplexy may 

 be the result. 



APOPLEXY. 



Apoplexy is a very fatal disease, and, like megrims, is gen- 

 erally met with in horses of a full habit ; that is, such as are 

 disposed to become too fat, with a very great amount of blood. 

 It consists in a powerful flow of blood to the head, causing 

 great pressure on the brain, often rupturing blood-vessels 

 within the cavity of the head or skull, and, of course, causing 

 the horse to fall. 



Symptoms. — Very little warning is sometimes given, the ani- 

 mal dropping as suddenly as if a ball had passed through the 

 heart, and he is quite dead. It may attack him in the stable, 

 in the field, or at work. Commonly some warning of an ap- 

 proaching attack of apoplexy is given. The horse will hold 

 his head down nearly to the ground, as if deaf or blind ; twitch- 

 ing, or checking back, as if something were before him ; and, 

 when he goes to move, his gait will be swaggering, like a 

 drunken man. He may continue in this condition for several 

 hours, but the symptoms of engorgement of the brain become 

 more severe until he falls. The pupils of the eyes become 

 more dilated; the eyes staring and vacant; the teeth grind 

 together, sometimes crushing the tongue; the veins of the neck 

 full, and the pulse slow and full ; the breathing oppressed, or 

 snoring ; twitching of the muscles ; strong convulsions finally 

 set in, and the animal dies, in a state of what is called asphyxia, 

 which is a want of aeration in the blood, causing it to become 

 loaded with carbonic acid. 



Causes. — The immediate cause of apoplexy — that which, at 

 the moment, produces the attack, is pressure on the brain, 

 produced by the congestion of its blood-vessels, or the watery 

 portion of the blood (the serum) escaping through the coats of 

 the veins, or their small terminations, (the capillaries), and 

 forming collections of watery fluid about the brain ; or by the 



