VERTIGO — MEGRIMS. 2f) 



this megrimed disposition to such an extent, that the riding-master 

 pronounced him incapable of being rendered fit for the ranks : he 

 was in consequence sold, it being, from all we could learn, an 

 hereditary aberration. 



The TREA.TMENT of megrims, in such a case as has just been 

 related, where there is every reason to believe that the affection is 

 dependent upon some peculiar aboriginal formation or state of the 

 encephalon, cannot possibly prove of any avail; nor will much 

 benefit — at least not permanent relief — be obtained from it in 

 such cases as date their beginning from a long time back, and have 

 ever since, at various intervals, experienced relapses of it. We may 

 procure longer remissions — we may by watching, and diet, and so 

 forth, occasionally succeed in warding off" threatened attacks; but 

 we shall rarely, very rarely, radically and permanently cure such 

 disease. Those cases hold out the best prospects for cure in which 

 the subjects are young, and the attacks prove the first and only ones 

 they have experienced, and are manifestly traceable to condition or 

 living, or work, &c., proving often but a kind of prelude to phre- 

 nitis or staggers ; — but these, in point of reality, cannot be consi- 

 dered as genuine megrims. The treatment is to consist in blood- 

 letting and briskly purging, and in — should that also be deemed 

 necessary — blistering the head. Here, likewise, setons through 

 the temples, or along the nape of the neck, are likely to prove of 

 especial service, should they be kept in a sufficiently long time. 



The Liability to Return of megrims is so notorious, that a 

 horse known once to have had a fit is looked upon with extreme 

 suspicion, and, as a consequence, experiences considerable deprecia- 

 tion in the market. The same causes and circumstances by which 

 one attack has been produced will always be likely to engender 

 a second ; and though we may by attention to diet and work, and 

 by occasionally bleeding and physicking, ward off the paroxysm for a 

 longer or shorter time, still, sultry weather or strong exertion may 

 bring it on in spite of us, and at a time we little expect it. This 

 uncertainty, coupled with the dread of its approach and conse- 

 quences, commonly proves the occasion of the unfortunate subject 

 being sold for what he will fetch ; continuing to change hands, 



