152 FEVERS. 



Another colt was purchased at the same time^ was a year 

 older than the last, and has never had strangles. When I 

 compare these facts with the accounts of the disease trans- 

 mitted by old authors/ I cannot reconcile them without 

 concluding strangles must be a disease of less general oc- 

 currence than formerly. It is to be admitted, some of the 

 young horses we obtain in regiments have had the disease 

 prior to purchase : I cannot, however, believe this has hap- 

 pened to so large a majority as I find apparently escaping 

 it. Let veterinarians attend to these points : we shall then, 

 before many years have passed, elicit some curious additions 

 to our present stock of knowledge.^ 



• " The strangles," says Gibson, " has been compared by the French and 

 other foreign writers to the smallpox in men ; because to both the young are 

 more incident, and because the strangles never seizes horses but once. But, 

 however that may be, it is certain that strangles is a critical swelling, which, 

 when it breaks and imposthuraates, discharges somewhat obnoxious to the con- 

 stitutions of horses, by which they are usually rendered more healthful than they 

 were before." Bracken, commenting on this comparison satirically remarks, 

 " that, on strict scrutiny, it will be found only flourishing on the matter, as is 

 too commonly the practice with long-winded authors; for the strangles are pro- 

 duced from catching cold, or from what we term perspiration obstructed." 

 Taplin, who lashes the pathology of Solleysel and Gibson in his usual unsparing 

 style tells us that strangles consists in the elimination from the system of an 

 " accumulation of impurities" imbibed with the food m colthood; and that this 

 " lurking viscidity is roused from its latent communication with the juices, and 

 called into action by bringing the frame into sudden exertions and constant 

 exercise :" — *' for experience demonstrates," he continues, " that twenty horses 

 have this distemper, after being taken to work, to every one attacked with it" 

 ia colthood. 



^ At the time this account of strangles was going through the press, the fol- 

 lowing observations arrived from Mr. J. M. Hales, V.S., Oswestry: — " Strangles, 

 in its regular form, is a disease requiring little attention, and is generally con- 

 sidered as an affection which at least nine horses out of ten will have ; yet it 

 occasionally takes on an irregular character, becomes very troublesome to 

 manage, and not unfrequently fatal. I do not wish to enter into any discussion 

 as to the contagious or infectious nature of strangles ; but my experience con- 

 vinces me that, when a bad sort of the complaint shows itself in a neighbourhood, 

 the great majority of horses or colts attacked with strangles in that district will 

 have the disease in an irregular way." This is an important fact — one that 

 would seem to indicate that atmospheric agency possessed some influence over 

 strangles. By way of illustration, Mr. Hales continues : " In the early part of 

 the present summer I ^Yas attending some young horses and colts in a gentle- 



