576 THE DISEASES OF THE HORSE 



is kept rigidly shut, the masseter muscles feeling as hard as a deal board. 

 One or both sides of the neck are rigid, in the former case the head being 

 turned to one side, and in the latter stretched out as if carved in marble. 

 The nostrils are dilated ; the eyes retracted, with the haws thrust forward 

 over them ; the ears ei'ect and stiff, and the countenance as if horror-struck. 

 The tail erect or persistently held on one side and partially elevated ; as 

 the disease progresses control of the extremities is lost, and then they become 

 rigid, like the neck and head. The patient is scarcely able to stand, and plants 

 his feet widely apart to prop himself up. The pulse varies a good deal, in 

 some cases being quick, small, and hard, and in others slow and laboured. 

 The bowels are generally costive, and the urine scanty; but this last symptom 

 is not so well marked as the state of the bowels alluded to. 



Treatment. — Anti-tetanin serum has not as yet proved a reliable remedy, 

 and we must be content to combat symptoms or else do nothing, the latter 

 policy being advocated by more than one eminent veterinarian ; cases of 

 recovery being recorded where the patient has been locked ujd in a loose box 

 with hay and water, no one being permitted to enter. The subcutaneous 

 injection of morphia and other sedatives has been tried ; the administration 

 of Indian hemp, chloral, sulphonal, bromides, and all the direct sedatives and 

 narcotics, but it is doubtful if any recoveries are due to the remedies em- 

 ployed. Any interference with the sufferer is calculated to bring on the 

 tetanic spasms. Chloroform inhaled subdues the spasm for a time, but it is 

 doubtful if any permanent benefit is derived from it. 



APOPLEXY AND PARALYSIS 



Usually these are only different degrees of the same disease, but there 

 are exceptions in which the latter is produced by some chronic affection of 

 the spinal chord or brain. As a rule both depend upon pressure made on 

 the brain by an overloaded state of the vessels, commonly known as con- 

 gestion, or by extravasation of blood, in which it escapes from them. 



Apoplexy, known among writers of the old school as sleepy staggers, is 

 not often met with in the present day, owing to the improvement in the 

 management of our stables, and specially to their better ventilation. It is 

 marked by great sleepiness, from which the horse can be with difficulty roused, 

 soon going on to absolute unconsciousness, attended by a slow snoring respir- 

 ation, and speedily followed by death. The only treatment likely to be 

 successful is copious bleeding, purgation, and blisters to the head and neck. 



Paralysis is marked by a loss of power over the muscles of a part, and 

 may be confined to one limb or organ or extend to more. It is a symptom 

 of pressure on, or disorganization of, some part of the nervous system, and 

 must be considered as such, and not as a disease of the affected muscles. 

 Thus it requires a knowledge of anatomy to trace it to its seat, without 

 which its treatment would be conducted on false principles. By far the 

 most common form of paralysis is hemiplegia, or paralysis of the muscles 

 of the hinder extremities and loins, generally arising fi'om an injury to 

 the spine. Sometimes the body of a vertebra is broken, and the parts being 

 separated, their edges press upon the spinal cord and produce the disease. 

 At others the vessels within the canal have received a shock, and the serous 



