558 THE PRACTICE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. 



vigorous, of strong constitutions, receive a proper amount of 

 exercise, are properly fed, etc. The reason why this should 

 be so is apparent, as such animals are in perfect health and 

 vigour, are fully developed, and, in a word, are in the prime 

 of life, and consequently offer a much greater resistance to 

 the introduction of the morbific influence into the system 

 than would be offered by a badly developed, weakly, or aged 

 animal, or an animal in an unthrifty state from any cause 

 whatever. A debilitated, or abnormal, condition of any one 

 or more organs of the animal economy especially invites or 

 predisposes to an attack of influenza; and, according to the 

 parts affected, do we have various symptoms presented. 



Influenza is not now attended with as great fatality as it 

 was some years ago, and, in the absence of complications, 

 cannot be considered as a very fatal disease, the fatality 

 being limited chiefly to old and worn-out animals, and those 

 of feeble constitutions. The disease, in its simple form, is 

 generally of a mild character, but it frequently leads to the 

 development of other and more severe affections, and in this 

 way often proves fatal. It has been observed that when 

 influenza prevails other disorders are, as a rule, unusually 

 severe, and the per centage of mortality from all diseases is 

 greater than usual. For instance, it may be readily under- 

 stood that were influenza to prevail to any great extent in 

 a locality already tainted with any low form of disease, that 

 the death-rate would be enormously increased. A proof of 

 this, I think, is the fact that influenza was considered to be 

 a A^ery fatal disease some years ago, when jDroper drainage 

 and other sanitary measures were not attended to as they 

 are at the present time ; but the above is only one of several 

 reasons why the disease is not now considered to be of as 

 formidable a nature as formerly. Among these reasons may 

 be mentioned the following : 



First, sanitary improvements. Second, that the disease 



