DISEASES OF HORSES 351 



The local treatment consists in astringent, soothing lotions 

 (sugar of lead 30 grains, laudanum 2 teaspoonfuls, rain water 

 boiled and cooled 1 pint) , applied with a soft cloth kept wet with 

 the lotion, and hung over the eye by tying it to the headstall of the 

 bridle on the two sides. If the mucous membrane lining of the lids 

 is the seat of little red granular elevations, a drop of solution of 2 

 grains of nitrate of silver in an ounce of distilled water should be ap- 

 plied with the soft end of a clean feather to the inside of the lid twice 

 a day. The patient should be removed from all such conditions (pas- 

 ture, faulty food, exposure, etc.) as may have caused or aggravated 

 the disease, and from dust and irritant fumes and gases. He should be 

 fed from a manger high enough to favor the return of blood from the 

 head, and should be kept from work, especially in a tight collar 

 which would prevent the descent of blood by the jugular veins. His 

 diet should be laxative and nonstimulating (grass, bran mashes, car- 

 rots, turnips, beets, potatoes, or steamed hay) , and any costiveness 

 should be corrected by a mild dose of raw linseed oil (1 to 1^ pints) . 

 In cold weather warm blanketing may be needful, and even loose 

 flannel bandages to the limbs, but heat should never be sought at the 

 expense of pure air. 



(2) In inflammations due to local irritants a careful examina- 

 tion will usually reveal their presence, and the first step must be their 

 removal with a pair of blunt forceps or the point of a lead pencil. 

 Subsequent treatment will be in the main the local treatment advised 

 above. 



(3) In case of infective inflammation there will often be found 

 a prick or tear by which the septic matter has entered, and in such 

 case the inflammation will for a time be concentrated at that point. 

 A round or conical swelling around an insect bite is especially char- 

 acteristic. A snake bite is marked by the double prick made by the 

 two teeth and by the violent and rapidly spreading inflammation. 

 Erysipelas is attended with much swelling, extending beyond the lids 

 and causing the mucous membrane to protrude beyond the edge 

 of the eyelid. This is characterized by a bright, uniform, rosy red, 

 disappearing on pressure, or later by a dark, livid hue, but with less 

 branching redness than in noninfecting inflammation and less of 

 the dark, dusky, brownish or yellowish tint of anthrax. Little vesi- 

 cles may appear on the skin, and pus may be found without any dis- 

 tinct limiting membrane, as in abscess. It is early attended by high 

 fever and marked general weakness and inappetence. Anthrax of the 

 lids is marked by a firm swelling, surmounted by a blister, with 

 bloody serous contents, which tends to burst and dry up into a slough, 

 while the surrounding parts become involved in the same way. Or it 

 may show as a diffuse dropsical swelling, with less of the hard central 

 sloughing nodule, but, like that, tending to spread quickly. In both 

 cases alike the mucous membrane and the skin, if white, assume a 

 dusky brown or yellowish brown hue, which is largely characteristic. 

 This may pass into a black color by reason of extravasation of blood. 

 There appears early great constitutional disturbance, with much pros- 

 tration and weakness and generalized anthrax symptoms. 



