176 EPIDEMU- CATARRH. 



comibrtably warm, or at least the temperature is variable, and 

 there is not in the manner of the arinAal. or in anyone symptom, 

 a decided reference to any particular part or spot, as the chief 

 seat of disease. 



Thus the malady proceeds for aw uncertahi period : occa- 

 sionally for several days — in not a lew instances through th? 

 whole of its course, and the animal dias exhausted by extensive 

 or general irritation : but in other ca^es the mflammation as 

 sumes a local determination, and we have brojichitis or pneumo- 

 nia, but of no very acute character, yet difficult to treat, from the' 

 general debility with which it is connected. Sometimes there 

 are considerable swellings in various parts, as the chest, the belly. 

 the extremities, and particularly the head. The brain is occa- 

 sionally affected ; the horse grows stupid ; the coniunctiva i& 

 alarmingly red ; the animal becomes gradually unconscious, and 

 delirium follows. A curious thickening, that may be mistaken 

 for severe sprain, is sometimes observed about the tendons. It is 

 seen under the knee or about the fetlock. It is hot a'hd tender, 

 and the lameness is considerable. The feet occasionally suffer 

 severely. There is a determination of fever to them far more vio 

 lent than the original disease, and separation of the laminse and 

 descent of the sole ensue. 



The most decided character in this disease is debility. Not the 

 stiff, unwilling motion oi" the horse with pneumonia, and which 

 has been mistaken for debility — every muscle being needed ibr 

 the purposes of respiration, and therefore imperfectly used in lo- 

 comotion — but actual loss of power in the muscular system gen 

 erally. The horse staggers from the second day. He threatens 

 to fall if he is moved. He is sometimes down, permanently down, 

 on the third or fourth day. The emaciation is also occasionally 

 rapid and extreme. 



At length the medical treatment which has been employed 

 succeeds, or nature begins to rally. The cough somewhat sub- 

 sides ; the pulse assumes its natural standard ; the countenance 

 acquires a little more animation ; the horse will eat a small quan- 

 tity of some choice thing ; and health and strength slowly, very 

 slowly indeed, return : but at other times, when there has been 

 no decided change during the progress of the disease, no manage- 

 able change of inflammation while there was sufficient power left 

 in the constitution to struggle with it, a strange exasperation of 

 symptoms accompanies the closing scene. The extremities be- 

 come deathly cold ; the flanks heave ; the countenance betrays 

 greater distress ; the membrane of the nose is of an intense red , 

 and inflammation of the substance of the lungs, and congestion 

 and death speedily follow. 



At other times the redness of the nostril suddenly disappears ' 



