HORSE— CARE AND MANAGEMENT. 



89 



ically enlarged submaxillary glands, are 

 met with, the application of the ointment 

 of biniodide of mercury, according to the 

 directions given for splints (see Horse 

 Splints), will almost certainly cause their 

 reduction to a natural state. 



HORSE, Gastritis. — Gastritis (acute in- 

 flammation of the stomach) is extremely 

 rare in the horse as an idiopathic disease ; 

 but it sometimes occurs from eating vege- 

 table poisons as food, or from the wilful 

 introduction of arsenic into this organ, or, 

 lastly, from kicking off corrosive external 

 applications, which have been used for 

 mange. The symptoms from poisoning 

 will a good deal depend upon the article 

 which has been taken, but in almost all 

 cases in which vegetable poisons have 

 been swallowed there is a strange sort of 

 drowsiness, so that the horse does not lie 

 down and go to sleep, but props himself 

 against a wall or tree with his head hang- 

 ing almost to the ground. As the drow- 

 siness increases he often falls down in his 

 attempt to rest himself completely, and 

 when on the ground his breathing is loud 

 and hard, and his sleep is so unnaturally 

 sound that he can scarcely be roused from 

 it. At length convulsions occur and death 

 soon takes place. This is the ordinary 

 course of poisoning with yew, which is 

 sometimes picked up with the grass after 

 the clippings have dried, for in its fresh 

 state the taste is too bitter for the palate, 

 and the horse rejects the mouthful of 

 .grass in which it is involved. May-weed 

 and water parsley will also produce nearly 

 similar symptoms. The treatment in each 

 case should be by rousing the horse me- 

 chanically, and at the same time giving 

 him six or eight drachms of aromatic spirit 

 of ammonia, in a pint or two of good ale, 

 with a little ginger in it. This may be 

 repeated every two hours, and the horse 

 should be perpetually walked about until 

 the narcotic symptoms are completely gone 

 off, when a sound sleep will restore him to 

 his natural state. 



Arsenic, when given in large doses, 

 with an intention to destroy life, produces 

 intense pain and thirst — the former, evi- 

 denced by an eager gaze at the flanks, 

 pawing of the ground, or rolling; and 

 sometimes by each of these in succession. 

 The saliva is secreted in increased quanti- 

 ties, and flows from the mouth, as the 

 throat is generally too sore to allow of its 



being swallowed. The breath soon be- 

 comes hot and fetid, and purging then 

 comes on of a bloody mucus, which 

 soon carries of the patient by exhaustion, 

 if death does not take place from the im- 

 mediate effect of the poison on the stom- 

 ach and brain. Treatment is seldom of 

 any avail, the most likely remedies being 

 large bleedings, blisters to the sides of the 

 chest, and plenty of thin gruel to sheathe 

 the inflamed surface of the mucous mem- 

 brane, which is deprived of its epithelial 

 scales. 



Corrosive sublimate is sometimes employ- 

 ed as a wash in mange, or to destroy lice, 

 when it may be licked off, and will occa- 

 sion nearly the same symptoms as arsenic. 

 The treatment consists in a similar use of 

 thin starch or guel ; or, if the poison has 

 recently been given wilfully, of large quan- 

 tities of white of egg. 



HORSE, Arsenic. — (See Horse, Gas- 



TRISIS.) 



HORSE, Corrosive Sublimate. — (See 

 Horse, Gastritis.) 



HORSE, Poison.— (See Horse, Gas- 

 tritis.) 



HORSE, Staggers, Stomach.— The exact 

 nature of this disease has never been 

 clearly made out, and it is now so rare 

 that there is little chance of its being satis- 

 factorily explained. The symptoms would 

 chiefly lead one to suppose the brain to 

 be implicated ; but there is so close a sym- 

 pathy between that organ and the stomach, 

 that we can easily account in that way for 

 the cerebral manifestations. A theory has 

 been propounded, that it is seated in the 

 par vagum, or pneumogastric nerve ; and 

 as all the parts with which that nerve is 

 connected are affected, there is some 

 ground for the hypothesis ; but it is not 

 supported by the demonstration of anat- 

 omy, simply, perhaps, because of the dif- 

 ficulty in the way of prosecuting the pa- 

 thology of the nerves. The first onset of 

 the disease is marked by great heaviness 

 of the eyes, soon going on to drowsiness ; 

 the head dropping into the manger, even 

 while feeding is in progress. It generally 

 makes its appearance after a long fast; 

 and it is supposed by some writers to be 

 owing to the demands made by the stom- 

 ach on the brain, when in an exhausted 

 condition for want of its usual supplies. 

 This theory is supported by the fact that, 

 in the present day, when every horsemas- 



