THE MODERN HORSE DOCTOR. 35 



DISEASES OF THE BRAIN AND ITS MEMBRANES. 



STOMACH STAGGEKS.* 



This is a disease very prevalent in this section of the United 

 States, and probably originates in derangement of the stomach. 

 The latter organ is united to the brain in the ties of sympathetic 

 relationship, through the medium of the great sympathetic nerve ; 

 and whenever the stomach becomes overburdened, and there- 

 fore incapable of performing its normal function, it communicates 

 the intelligence to head quarters, — the brain, — and soon sympa- 

 thetic relations are established, and the brain, as it were, becomes 

 secondarily affected. 



Disease of this character seldom, if ever, attacks horses when 

 due care is exercised in regard to dietary management. A very 

 celebrated author has said that this disease never occurs ex- 

 cept by the fault of those who have the management of the horse. 

 It sometimes arises from giving a horse too much provender, 

 after he has been kept too long without food, and in the interim 

 worked hard, or driven fast. At other times, a horse may get 

 loose during the night, and so gorge himself that the stomach is 

 jncapable of contracting upon its contents, or in any way perform- 

 ing its function ; in such cases, the walls of that organ are often 

 ruptured. 



* A stomach surcharged with food, without any accompanying tympanitic dis- 

 tention, does not appear to occasion any local pain, but operates with that kind 

 of influence upon the brain which gives rise to symptoms, not stomachic, but 

 cerebral ; hence the analogy between this disease and staggers, and the appel- 

 lation for it of " stomach staggers." The unnaturally filled stomach produces, 

 for the first time, a sense of satiety ; the horse grows heavy and drowsy, re- 

 poses his head upon the manger, falls asleep, and makes a stertorous noise. 

 All at once he rouses from his lethargy, and violently thrusts his head against 

 the rack or wall of the stable, or any thing, in fact, that happens to oppose 

 him, and in this posture paws with his fore feet, or performs the same action 

 with them as he would were he trotting, evidently all the while unconscious of 

 what he is about. His eye, which at first was full of drowsiness, has now ac- 

 quired a wild, unmeaning stare, or has already become dilated and insensible 

 to light. The respiration is tardy and oppressed ; the pulse slow and sluggish ; 

 the excretions commonly diminished. — Hippopathology. 



