THE IIOKSE. 85 



oats or mow-burnt hay, from exposure to cold, injuries of the loins, and 

 the imprudent use of diuretics. Bleeding, physic and counter-irritants 

 over the region of the loins should be had recourse to. Diabetes or 

 profuse staling is difficult to treat. The inflammation that may exist 

 should first be subdued, and then opium, catechu, and the Uva ursi ad- 

 ministered. Inflammation of the bladder will be best alleviated by mu- 

 cilaginous drinks of almost any kind, linseed-gruel taking precedence 

 of all others. Inflammation of the neck of the bladder, evinced by the 

 frequent and painful discharge of small quantities of urine will yield 

 only to the abstraction of blood and the exhibition of opium. A 

 catheter may be easily passed into the bladder of the mare and urine 

 evacuated; but it will require a skillful veterinary surgeon to eff'ect this 

 in the horse. A stone in the bladder is readily detected by the prac- 

 titioner, and may be extracted with comparative ease. The sheath of 

 the penis is often diseased from the presence of corrosive mucous mat- 

 ter. This may easily be removed with warm soap and water. 



To the mucous membranes belong the conjunctival tunic of the eye ; 

 and the diseases of the eye generally may be here considered. A 

 scabby itchiness on the edge of the eyelid may be cured by a diluted 

 nitrated ointment of mercuiy. Warts should be cut oflf with the scis- 

 sors and the roots touched with lunar caustic. Inflammation of the 

 liaw should be abated by the employment of cooling lotions, but that 

 useful defense of the eye should never if possible be removed. Com- 

 mon ophthalmia will yield as readily to cooling applications as inflam- 

 mation of the same organ in any other animal ; but there is another 

 species of inflammation, commencing in the same way as the first, 

 and for a while apparently yielding to treatment, but which changes 

 from eye to eye, and returns again and again, until blindness is pro- 

 duced in one or both organs of vision. The most frequent cause is 

 hereditary predisposition. The reader cannot be too often reminded 

 that the qualities of the sire, good or bad, descend, and scarcely changed, 

 to his offspring. How moon blindness was first produced no one knows ; 

 but its continuance in our stables is to be traced to this cause princi- 

 pally, or almost alone ; and it pursues its course until cataract is pro- 

 duced for which there is no remedy. Gutta serena (palsy of the optic 

 nerve) is sometimes observed, and many have been deceived, for the eye 

 retains its perfect transparency. Here also medical treatment is of no 

 avail. 



The serous membranes are of great importance. The brain and spinal 

 marrow with the origins of the nerves are surrounded by them; so are 

 the heart, the lungs, the intestinal canal, and the organs whose office it 

 is to prepare the generative fluid. 



Illflammution of the Brain. — Mad-staggers falls under this division. It 

 is inflammation of the meninges or envelopes of the brain, produced by 

 over-exertion or by any of the causes of general fever, and it is charac- 

 terized by the wildest delirium. Nothing but the most profuse blood- 

 letting, active purgation and blistering the head will afford the slightest 

 hope of success. Tetanus^ or locked jaw^ is a constant spasm of all the 

 voluntary muscles, and particularly those of the neck, the spine and the 

 head, arising from the injury of some nervous fibril — that injury spread- 



38 



