714 SPORADIC DISEASES. 



but if the appetite fail, if the pulse becomes thready, and the 

 patient weak, it behoves the owner to act with promptness." 

 " The following symptoms," says that excellent observer John 

 Field, " indicate the violent and too long-continued action of 

 purgatives, and invariably portend a fatal termination : — Staring 

 glassy eyes ; frequent, indistinct, feeble, and sometimes thread- 

 like pulse ; purging offensive matters, with or without distension 

 of abdomen, or distended abdomen without evacuations ; offen- 

 sive mouth; tongue pallid or whitish with fur, and pasty; 

 smell quite peculiar ; respiration tranquil, but it becomes labori- 

 ous when the belly becomes enormously distended ; extremities 

 warm ; the horse usually stands still, sometimes paws or wanders 

 about, and but rarely lies down." 



Superpurgation does not always depend upon the strength of 

 the dose. In some instances as little as four drachms of aloes 

 have been succeeded by fatal consequences. Again, horses in an 

 obese condition, and those suffering from slight colds, are easily 

 acted upon by purgative medicines, and are apt to sink from 

 superpurgation. A full dose of aloes, from six to eight drachms, 

 operating quickly, is seldom succeeded in healthy animals by 

 any evil consequences ; the same quantity, however, if divided 

 into two or more doses, has a much more depressing effect, and 

 is apt to be followed by serious consequences. In the first in- 

 stance, the quantity, by its strength, insures its own expulsion ; 

 whilst in the second, the aloes is absorbed into the circulation, 

 excites a toxic effect upon the system generally, and reduces 

 the horse to such a state of debility that its succumbs to the 

 purgative influence. The explanation of the tendency to super- 

 purgation in the horse is to be found in the fact that its bowela 

 are extremely vascular in comparison with those of other 

 animals, and that the effect of the purgative acting upon sc 

 vascular a surface is grave and serious. I have already pointed 

 out that many young horses, when first brought into the stable; 

 are rendered susceptible to various diseases by the debilitating 

 influences of indiscriminate purging, and that such a method 

 of treatment is uncalled for and irrational. In addition to the 

 symptoms described by Messrs. Haycock and Field, I have 

 observed that those of laminitis are induced by purgatives, and 

 that when they occur they indicate a condition of great gravity. 



The post mortem appearances are those of congestion of the 



