212 NAYIX ON THE HORSE. 



way take it on the other. It can hardly be supposed that an 

 animal already laboring under one of these aifections would 

 so abuse himself as to provoke the other, .if it takes a bruise 

 to produce it. 



A horse once cured of either is very liable to a relapse, and 

 when it does return, it is quite as likely to be the other as the 

 original form of the disease, and nearly as liable, if fistula, to 

 change its seat to some other point about the withers as to 

 return at the same place. 



In three-fourths of the cases I have treated I have been 

 able to discover positive constitutional derangement. The 

 very character of the abscess, its having no tendency to heal 

 after the first opening and discharging its contents, but rather 

 to commence eating in or burrowing, indicates that it is of no 

 healthy character, but must have something peculiar about it, 

 or that it must depend on some constitutional derangement. 

 Indeed, it has almost every characteristic of a scrofulous ulcer 

 on an extensive scale, and if it does, as I am quite certain is 

 the case, commence in inflammation of the small lymphatic 

 glands, then may the question of its scrofulous nature be con- 

 sidered definitely settled. 



It is a well-known fact that when the horse is under the in- 

 fluence of internal alterative treatment, the ulcer will heal 

 much more readily than when not under such treatment. In 

 some cases it is almost impossible to effect a cure without con- 

 stitutional treatment. Dr. Dadd says he has "cured many 

 cases of fistula by treating them as common abscesses, with 

 the application of stimulating antiseptic and tonic poultices, 

 and by a jyurifying course of treatment^ with proper attention 

 to diet." 



I have been thus tedious in discussing this subject, for it is 

 a matter of the first importance that correct views should be en- 

 tertained with regard to the nature of diseases, so that meas- 

 ures may be taken to get rid of a diseased stock or to prevent its 



