Symptoms. 651 



eating while drinking or forget to swallow. Some animals con- 

 sume their usual diet, others eat sufficiently only to allay hun- 

 ger. In many cases animals prefer to eat off the ground or out 

 of the manger rather than from the rack. This is not because 

 the pressure varies with different positions of the head, be- 

 cause the same or a similar tendency is seen in other chrome 

 diseases of the brain in which there is no increase in the intra- 

 cranial pressure. . ra^ - i 

 Sensibility appears, as a rule, to be decreased. Affected 

 animals take no notice of slight pressure on the skin, do not at- 

 tempt to remove flies, remain more or less quiet if pricked with 

 a needle, the coronet be trodden upon, the flank pinched, the 

 hairs around the muzzle be pulled or the ears seized. The 

 sense of perception of position is sometimes in aljeyance, the 

 legs being placed in quite unnatural positions, sometimes widely 

 separated and at other times crossed. If the animal be placed 

 in an unnatural position it will remain in it for a long time until 

 some disturbance of balance or other stimulus causes it to cor- 



rect it. 



xVbnormalities of movements are shown by the reluctance 

 with which an animal moves when urged to do so. In some cases 

 the animals are restive, making sudden plunges. It is partic- 

 ularly difficult to move a horse backwards, the forelegs are 

 moved with this object, but the hind feet remain stationary un- 

 til movement is forced owing to loss of balance. While walking 

 or trotting the feet are lifted unusually high and are put down 

 clumsily, as if the animal were walking through water. If the 

 ground" be uneven the head is held either very low or excessively 

 high. 



Skin reflexes are, as a rule, abolished, but sometimes 

 they are exaggerated. In some cases (Hutyra & Marek) the 

 patellar reflex was exaggerated to a marked degree. 



Abnormal movements are not actually rare and m the ma- 

 jority of cases the animal has a tendency to go towards one 

 side, in contradistinction to moving in circles. The head m 

 such cases is often held obliquely. 



The sense of vision is sometimes disturbed and the evi- 

 dence of fright, which is not infrequently seen, is probably due 

 to this. In severe cases the sense of vision may be quite lost, 

 or there may be complete amaurosis. Lustig records venous 

 congestion of the optic papillae and marked redness round about 

 them ; others, however, have not observed this and Hutyra and 

 Marek have not been able to confirm this. 



It is very probable that the other organs of sense suffer some disturbance of 

 function. There are great difficulties in the way of ascertaining the existence of 

 such anomalies in animals. 



The heart action is slower and in the horse may fall to 

 thirty to twentv per minute, and it may also be arhythmic, but 

 it is 'full and soft. Respiration is also slower, nine and seven 



