SECTION III. 



FEVEKS. 



I. COMMON I ^^^^^^'^^^^^ II. SPECIFIC I 



I SYMPATHETIC. I 



INFLUENZA. 

 L STRANGLES. 



The subject of fever has shared a fate somewhat similar 

 to that of humours. Old works present us with copious 

 accounts of fevers ; the veterinary school in this country- 

 set out with denying their existence. I commenced practice 

 myself with a belief that there was no such disease in 

 horses as abstract fever, but I was soon compelled to alter 

 my opinion, I having met with diseases it was impossible to 

 class under any other heading. And I believe, at the pre- 

 sent day, the revival of this doctrine is pretty general. 



Definition. — To express, in a few words, what fever 

 essentially consists in seems to have puzzled medical writers 

 as much as defining health or disease. Boerhaave says : 

 " In every fever, arising from internal causes, there is always 

 a shivering, a quick pulse, and heat -'^ but adds, that " the 

 QUICK PULSE alone is present through its whole course, from 

 the beginning to the end, and by that only the physician 

 judges of the existence of fever.^^ Dr. Cullen defines 

 febrile diseases to consist in '' after shivering (or a sense of 

 coldness), a quick pulse, increased heat, disturbance of 

 several functions, prostration of strength.^^ Dr. Fordyce 

 presents us with an account of what is called an ague, as a 

 specimen of genuine fever. Now, an ague consists in fits, 

 as they are called ; a quick pulse may be the result of de- 

 bility, and the symptoms recounted by Dr. Cullen characterise 

 nearly every disease quite as well as fever. 



Professor Coleman appears to have based his opinion, 

 that horses are not the subjects of fever, upon the study of 

 the previous definitions. This kind of fever, so far as my 

 observations have extended, they certainly do not exhibit. 



