38 DISEASES OF THE HORSE. 



Anodynes quiet the nervous system. Pain in the "horse, as in the 

 man, is one of the important factors in the production of fever, and 

 the dulling of the former often prevents, or at least reduces, the 

 latter. Anodynes produce sleep, so as to rest the patient and allow 

 recuperation for the succeeding struggle of the vitality of the animal 

 against the exhausting drain of the disease. 



The diet of an animal suffering from acute inflammation is a factor 

 of the greatest importance. An overloaded circulation can be starved 

 to a reduced quantity and to a less rich quality of blood by reducing 

 the quantity of feed given to the patient. Feeds of easy digestion do 

 not tire the alread}' fatigued organs of an animal with a torpid diges- 

 tive system. Xourisliment will be taken by a suffering brute in the 

 form of slops and cooling drinks when it would be totally refused if 

 offered in its ordinary form, as hard oats or dry hay, requiring the 

 labor of grinding between the teeth and swallowing by the weakened 

 muscles of the jaws and throat. 



Tonics and stimulants are remedies which are used to meet special 

 indications, as in the case of a feeble heart, and which enter into the 

 after treatment of inflammatory troubles as well as into the acute 

 stages of them. They brace up weakened and torpid glands; they 

 stimulate the secretion of the necessary fluids of the body, and hasten 

 the excretion of the waste material produced by the inflammatory 

 process ; they regulate the action of a weakened heart ; they promote 

 healthy vitality of diseased parts, and aid the chemical changes 

 needed for returning the altered tissues to their normal condition. 



FEVERS. 



Fever is a general condition of the animal body in which there is an 

 elevation of the animal body temperature, which ma}^ be only a de- 

 gree or two or may be 10° F. The elevation of the body temperature, 

 which represents tissue change or combustion, is accompanied with 

 an acceleration of the heart's action, a quickening of the respiration, 

 and an aberration in the functional activity of the various organs of 

 the body. These organs may be stimulated to the performance of 

 excessive work, or they may be incapacitated from carrying out their 

 allotted tasks, or, in the course of a fever, the two conditions may 

 both exist, the one succeeding the other. Fever as a disease is usually 

 preceded by chills as an essential symptom. 



Fevers are divided into essential fevers and symptomatic fevers. 

 In sj^mptomatic fever some local disease, usually of an inflammatory 

 character, develops first, and the constitutional febrile phenomena are 

 the result of the primary point of combustion irritating the whole 

 body, either through the nervous system or directly by means of the 

 waste material which is carried into the circulation and through the 



