PECULIAR TO HORSES. 63 



exception of a bran mash or two, the above comprises the whole of 

 the treatment. 



Remarks. — It was hicky for the horse as well as the parties con- 

 cerned, that the animal did not get corn instead of oats ; for tlie same 

 quantity of corn would have surely caused death ; from the fact that 

 when this article of fodder is submitted, within the stomach, to the 

 action of heat and moisture, it increases in bulk in a ratio of about 

 five to one, and the usual result is rupture of the stomach; still 

 should any of our readers be called upon to treat a case of the lat- 

 ter kind, there is no other plan of treatment, with which I am ac- 

 quainted, that will be likely to succeed in saving the animal than the 

 one above indicated. 



A cow is sometimes "gorged," and her paunch is, in consequence, 

 distended to an enormous capacity, and very frequently an opera- 

 tion has to be performed in order to remove the contents of the 

 same ; yet such an operation as the one usually performed, is attend- 

 ed with much danger, and rather than run the risk of losing the 

 animal, I should first try to arouse the action of the stomach, as in 

 the case of a horse. 



SWEENEY, OR WASTING OF MUSCLES. 



Preliminary. — This afiection is one which prevails very exten- 

 sively among Western horses, and indeed has occasionally been pre- 

 sent in all parts of the United States, yet very little of a reliable 

 character has ever been written on the subject; hence, as a pro- 

 fessed teacher of veterinary science, and not being willing to carry 

 my knowledge to the grave, it becomes my pleasant duty to give the 

 readers of this work the benefit of my experience, and in so doing 

 I shall endeavor to be brief, practical, and also to deal in facts. 



Sweeney is a terra used by husbandmen, sicrnifying wasting of 

 the muscles in the region of the shoulder-blade ; professional men 

 recognize the affection as Atrophy — wasting; 2l gradual ox sudden 

 diminution in the size of muscles of a region, or of the whole body. 

 When the afiection is confined to the shoulder, it is called local atro- 

 phy ; and when there occurs a morbid and progressive diminution 

 in the bulk of the muscles of the whole body, the disease is known 

 as general atrophy, or Marasmus. 



Medical writers generally contend that sweeney or atrophy is occa- 

 sioned by faulty or defective nutrition, and is usually sympathetic. 

 Ancient authorities say, that in atrophy, the fat only is wasted. 

 This is a great mistake: for a collapsion of the cellular, muscular 

 and vascular systems, in a case of atrophy, is evidently apparent. 



Pathology of Sweeney. — I now propose to discuss the theory 

 of the pathology of Sweeney. 



I have had several opportunities of examining horses that have 

 died in consequence of disease or old age, who, during life, were 

 the subjects of sweeney, and I always found the muscles of the shoul- 

 der, or shoulders, pale looking or bloodless ; almost resembling the 

 muscles of a calf that had been bled to death: the ordinary color 

 should be a reddish-brown tint The collapsion was not only con- 



