80 THE IMPROVED ART OF FARRIERY. 



fully treated, by syringing their noses with sharp 

 stimulating liquids, which, by irritating the membranes 

 already too much inflamed, brought on ulcerations and 

 a continued discharge of purulent matter that could 

 not be stopped, with swellings of the glands, which 

 ended in caries of the bones. 



" About ten years afterwards, in 1734, another epi- 

 demical disease happened. This proved more fatal 

 than the former, though from its short continuance it 

 was much less noticed, for many horses recovered so 

 far as to be out of danger in two or three days. In 

 this the horse coughed violently, and many of the 

 hackney-coach horses and cart-horses that w^ere obliged 

 to work were observed to run greatly at the nose. 



*' Some were seized suddenly with a high degree 

 of fever, and their flesh apparently seemed so sore and 

 tender, that they could scarcely bear to be touched. 

 They were generally costive, staled but little, and that 

 with pain and straining, and the urine was of a very 

 high colour. They refused all manner of sustenance, 

 and were so extremely sick that they could not drink, 

 neither would many of them he down, till the disease 

 came to a crisis ; yet with treating them with cooling 

 and opening medicines, and with plentiful bleeding, 

 they generally recovered. Some of the horses affected 

 with it had very hot and inflamed eruptions, which 

 broke out in several parts with blisters resembling ery- 

 sipelas. Those that came to maturity appeared gene- 

 rally on the inside of the arm or fore-legs, near the 

 elbow or towards the neck ; and some of them had 

 large bags of water collected on their sides or bellies, 

 or towards their flanks near the inguinal glands, con- 

 stituting what the farriers called the Water-farcy. 

 Some had been costive before they were seized, for 

 their dung was extremely hard and black. Under 



