3IO Veterinary Medicine. 



In some nervous animals, especially high-bred horses and 

 dogs, there is undoubtedly an idiosyncrasy which shows itself in 

 a special susceptibility of the nervous system. In such animals 

 an exposure to cold or wet, or the presence of a local irritant 

 which would have been without effect under other circumstances, 

 lights up the nervous disorder and produces an explosion, it may 

 be as spasm or it may be as nervous pain. Animals that are 

 kept under the best care, that are least accustomed to exposure 

 and neglect, that are highly fed, and maintained in high spirits 

 and are impatient of control are more susceptible than those that 

 become inured to change and exposure, yet are kept in moderately 

 good condition. On the other hand the subject which has become 

 debilitated by overwork, underfeeding, exhausting di.sease, or 

 the generation in the system of some depressing poison is likely 

 to show a similar nervous susceptibility, so that at the two ex- 

 tremes of plethora and nervous susceptibility, on the one hand, 

 and anaemia and neurasthenia on the other, we find a correspond- 

 ing tendency to nervous disorder under comparatively slight 

 causes. Thus it happens that a drink of ice cold water, an expo- 

 sure to a cold blast or a drenching rain or a heavy night dew 

 may seem to be the one appreciable cause of the trouble. If the 

 animal has been perspiring and fatigued the attack is more 

 likely to occur. In other cases a slight indigestion unattended by 

 impaction or tympany, or the ingestion of an irritant which on 

 another occasion, or in another animal would have been perfectl}' 

 harmless, will induce a violent nervous colic. In some instances 

 the attack is supposed to be of a rheumatic nature the causative 

 action of the cold giving color to tlie theory. 



Symptoms. The attack usually comes on suddenly especially 

 if it has followed on a drink of cold water or a cold exposure. 



Solipeds. The horse leaves off feeding or whatever he may 

 have been engaged in, paws with his fore feet, moves uneasily 

 with his hind ones or kicks with them, one at a time against the 

 abdomen or out backward, he looks back at the abdomen with 

 pinched, drawn, anxious countenance, bright anxious eye, and 

 dilated nostrils, he moves uneasily from side to side of the stall or 

 box, crouches for a few seconds with semi-bent knees and hocks 

 and tlien throws himself down violently with a prolonged groan. 

 When down he may roll from side to side over the back, and 



