NATURE AND SYMPTOMS. 41 



per minute, small in volume and tense ; tlie respirations hurried ; 

 rigors, or even shivering, either largely distributed over the 

 body, or more probably confined to the large extensor muscles 

 of the arm and those of the haunch and thigh : these rigors 

 may even be accompanied — generally followed— by the occur- 

 rence of local and patchy perspirations. Succeeding these con- 

 ditions, in a few hours the temperature may fall considerably, 

 the surface of the body assume a more natural condition, and 

 altogether, the horse seems much improved ; he may even be 

 disposed to look for food. These favourable conditions, how- 

 ever, do not continue, or at least are only of limited duration, 

 and are followed by a return of the former pyrexial symptoms, 

 usually not so violent as at first, but neither so disposed to 

 remit, and are likely to persist until a more gradual and steady 

 decline is ushered in. 



The subsidence or decline of the pyrexial symptoms, notably 

 the lowering of the elevated temperature in fever, is spoken of 

 under the term of defervescence ; when this dechne, or lowering 

 of temperature, takes place suddenly — at a bound, as it were — 

 it is called a crisis; when it is accomplished steadily but 

 gradually, a lysis. 



In simple fever in the horse, the defervescence as a rule — at 

 least the severe cases — occurs in neither of these manners, but 

 rather through a combination of both. There is first of all, as 

 already noticed, a rather sudden and marked decline in the 

 temperature, which having reached the j)oint marked by this 

 first break, or fall, does not decline further by sudden or spas- 

 modic jerks, but is characterized by a gradual subsidence. 



The fall in the temperature and abatement of the other 

 pyrexial symptoms is accompanied by a return of appetite, 

 and usually by an increase of the water eliminated through 

 the kidneys. It is, however, to be remembered that in all 

 cases of simple fever, should an animal suffer from some 

 previous debility or structural change of any organ, there is 

 the probability that diseased activities may be there re-estab- 

 lished, and complications result. 



Treatment. — Simple continued fever in the horse, as in every 

 other animal, is a benign affection not disposed to terminate in 

 serious complications, and inclined of itself to run a natural 

 course, terminating in restoration to health. 



