4 i INFLUENZA. 



CHAPTER II. 



INFLUENZA. — EPIZOOTIC OR PANZOOTIC CATARRHAL FEVER. 



Bynonyms. — Epizootic catarrh, Horse sickness, Horse dis- 

 temper, Febris catarrhalis, etc. 



Definition. — A 'peculiar or probably a specific febrile disease 

 of the horse, generally appearing as an ep)izodtic, in which the 

 organs of respiration and circulation are most uniformly 

 involved, attended tvith marked lassitude and, prostration, 

 tuithin many cases complications arising from implication of 

 those of digestion and locomotion. 



Historical Notice. — Although from very early — even the 

 most remote — periods, it is perfectly evident, when we peruse 

 the records of the past, that men have paid attention to 

 diseases which have originated in the supposed action of 

 extraordinary telluric and meteorological influences, and which 

 from centres of origin have spread over extensive territories 

 and kingdoms, devastating and impoverishing by their 

 destruction of men as well as animals, there is not, as far as 

 we are aware, any credible notice of the existence of influenza 

 in either animals or men previous to the tenth century. It is 

 nearly the opening of the fourteenth century (1299) ere there 

 is evidence indicative of the occurrence of this panzootic 

 catarrhal fever in horses. At this date Larentius Rusius 

 speaks of it as a certain fever which broke out amongst horses 

 at Seville, marked by want of appetite, drooping head, weeping- 

 eyes, and hurried beating at the flanks. He says : " The 

 malady was epidemical, and more than one thousand horses 

 died." In 1648 Solleysel, a celebrated French veterinarian, 

 describes an outbreak of an epizooty amongst the horses of the 

 French army in Germany. It began by fever, great prostra- 

 tion and running from the eyes, and there was an abundant 

 mucous discharge of a greenish colour from the nostrils. The 

 horses also experienced loss of appetite, and their ears were 

 cold. Few of those attacked recovered. The treatment 

 adopted was with a view to neutralize the malignity of the 

 poison, and to fortify nature ; for it was a poison, says this 

 author, which gave rise to the disorder, and was the cause of 

 the fever (Fleming's " Animal Plagues "). The year 1688 is 



