452 SPOEADIC DISEASES. 



of blood ; the perspiration was excessive also. In two cases the 

 more violent symptoms subsided for a time ; they became cool 

 in the skin, and partook of food and water, but were totally 

 unable to rise. This improvement did not prove of any long 

 duration ; they commenced struggling again with renewed vio- 

 lence with the fore limbs, and continued to do so until they 

 died." Gamgee gives the symptoms of the disease as it occurs 

 in Germany as follows : — " Stiff gait, weakness of the hind 

 quarters, frequent pulse, redness of the visible mucous mem- 

 branes, anxious expression of countenance, and sweating; a 

 remarkable swelling of great firmness occurs over the loins and 

 hips, and there is a copious discharge of urine of a very dark 

 red or brown colour. Great difficulty of breathing ensues, 

 tetanic symptoms supervene, and death." 



The two descriptions agree in most particulars ; both contain 

 the diagnostic symptoms of the malady, namely, the tonic spasm 

 of the gluteal, lumbar, and some scapular muscles, and the pro- 

 fuse discharge of dark-coloured urine. 



Mr. Haycock was of opinion that the disease had some con- 

 nection with the period of oestrum, that it was the result of 

 undue excitability, and he compares it with hysteria as described 

 by Copland in his Medical Uidionary. Mr. Gamgee offers no 

 hypothesis as to the nature of the malady. Professor Dick 

 describes it as sprain of the psoas muscles. 



At first I was inclined to think, with Haycock, that it was a 

 disease of the mare, but further experience led me to conclude 

 differently, for I have as frequently seen it in the gelding as in 

 the mare ; and examinations of the urine, both chemical and 

 microscopic, have convinced me that there is no blood passed 

 by the kidneys, but immense quantities of urea and a less 

 notable qiiantity of hippuric acid. 



The pathology of the disease is, in my opinion, a hyper- 

 nitrogenous condition of the blood and system generally, due 

 to over-feeding and want of exercise ; the excessive secretion 

 of urine and excretion of urea being physiological results 

 due to the presence of effete products — metamorj)hoses of 

 nitrogenous food — in the blood. The history of every case that 

 I have met with, and of all those recorded by Haycock, points 

 to this. He says — " The first case which I treated, the animal 

 had rested about a week, at the end of which time it was put 



