64 SYMPTOMS OF INFLAMMATION. 



stances, such as tlie state of the atmosphere, ventilation, drain- 

 age, and when any zymotic disease is associated with the 

 local inflammation. Animals which are located in country 

 districts present a much higher type of fever, and bear blood- 

 letting much better than those crowded together in large town 

 establishments. Again, the fever is modified in its expression 

 by the nature of the part that is inflamed. The pulse and fever 

 that accompany acute laminitis are at once characteristic of the 

 disease, and no man of common observing powers would fail to 

 recognise this formidable malady if he once felt the pulse, strong, 

 hard, and full, and continuing so for days even after the vital 

 powers have begun to fail. The type of the fever undergoes 

 a change when suppuration takes place ; when it (the fever) con- 

 tinues long, and when mortification or gangrene occurs to any 

 extent. The febrile state generally follows the local disease, but 

 there is good reason to believe that the jpyrexial condition and 

 the condition of inflammation in a part may be excited, in some 

 instances, conjointly; or, at all events, their periods of com- 

 mencement may correspond so closely that it is difficult to 

 conceive that one is the effect of the other. There is every 

 reason to believe that, in some instances, the fever precedes 

 the local inflammation ; as in strangles, where it may be said 

 to be present in some cases for an indefinite but short period 

 before there is any manifestation of local symptoms. The animal 

 is then said to be " breeding strangles'/ and in epizootic pneu- 

 monia in the horse, I am convinced that, in many instances, 

 the local inflammation succeeds the fever, and that much of the 

 non-success in the treatment of this disease has arisen from 

 iraorance of this fact. 



When inflammation proceeds to suppuration a severe fit of 

 shivering is often the first indication of the formation of pus. 

 The nature of the fever then alters, and becomes characterised 

 (except in laminitis, and acute suppurative arthritis, or an open 

 joint) by softness and feebleness of the pulse, and by much ner- 

 vous prostration and debility. A copious formation of pus may 

 proceed from a mucous membrane without any appreciable 

 degree of suffering, whilst a most trifling amount of pus from a 

 serous or synovial membrane will be often associated with fever 

 of even a fatal character. In any case, the character of the 

 fever depends greatly on the constitution of the patient : if this 



