APOPLEXY. 23 



the dilated state of the pupils, which are unaffected by light, how- 

 ever strong. In fine, neither noise, nor blows, nor any thing we 

 can do to him, makes any impression upon him. We cannot rouse 

 him out of his lethargy. His fate appears to be irrevocably 

 sealed. 



D'ArbovaL, although he has enumerated symptoms which, ac- 

 cording to the view I have taken of apoplexy, are, strictly speaking, 

 inadmissible, as being in themselves apoplectic, still, in the end, 

 comes to the conclusion, that apoplexy is not to be considered 

 " comme prononcee qu'au moment ou I'animal tombe tout a coup, 

 sans movement autre que celui des flancs :" transient vertigo, 

 heaviness and dependance of head; staggering gait; diminution of 

 sight, hearing, and appetite ; frequent gaping ; stupidity, and 

 numbness or torpor of limb ; drowsiness, or else apparent laziness 

 or weakness, &c., being but the " avant-coureurs " or symptoms 

 premonitory of the fit : in fact, s3anptoms which belong to coma 

 or sleepy staggers, and which, though they may end in apoplexy, 

 are more likely to bring forth a paroxysm of phrenitis. 



The Diagnosis between apoplexy and coma or sleepy stag- 

 gers, now becomes apparent. In coma, the horse is standing, and 

 any loud noise, or smart shake or blow, will rouse him ; and often 

 so completely will he recover his senses when roused, that he will 

 not only recognise persons and things around him, but take food in 

 his mouth and chew it : in the apoplectic fit, nothing will produce 

 such an effect, though, should the animal by any means happen 

 to be relieved — a case most rare — apoplexy may become mitigated 

 or converted into coma. Staggers, either in its sleepy or mad 

 form, may commence with symptoms resembling those of megrims, 

 a circumstance which has given rise, to the notion that megrims 

 occasionally terminates in staggers : but this I do not apprehend 

 to be the case ; these are only symptoms so like megrims, as, while 

 they continue, to be perhaps indistinguishable from that disorder, 

 and not genuine megrims ; that being a disease sui generis, and 

 one that lasts for years, returning from time to time, without end- 

 ing in staggers, much less in apoplexy. 



The Autopsy of horses that have died of apoplexy has com- 

 monly shewn a surcharged condition of the vessels of the cerebrum 



