THE MODERN HORSE DOCTOR. 43 



A counter irritant, consisting of mustard, cayenne, and vinegar, 

 may be applied to the chest. The head must be kept cool with 

 water. 



If the bowels do not respond to the aloetic drench, after wait- 

 ing a reasonable time, it will be advisable to give three or four 

 drachms more. There need be no fears of superpurgation ; and 

 if that should be the result, it could not do much harm. " Pur- 

 gation in mad staggers has ever stood in such high repute among 

 farriers, that a common saying among them is ' Purge a horse 

 with staggers, and you cure him ; ' and this, like many other old 

 veterinary adages, appears to have been founded in sound obser- 

 vation. In fact, it is a practice pursued by every surgeon in 

 cephalitic cases, with the twofold view of removing any source 

 of irritation or cause for the head affection that may exist within 

 the bowels, and of indirectly abstracting blood by derivation and 

 discharge." — Hippopathology, p. 20. 



APOPLEXY. 



The immediate causes of apoplexy are, compression of the 

 brain from congestion of its blood vessels ; or by an effusion of 

 blood, or serum, (water,) into some portion of the cranial cavity ; 

 or from tumors, which compress some portion of the medullary 

 substance of the brain. Congestion, and subsequently effu- 

 sion, may be brought on in subjects predisposed to the disease, 

 by any thing that determines the afflux of blood to the head ; or, 

 in other words, by any thing that disturbs the equilibrium of the 

 circulation, and prevents the free return of blood from the brain. 



There are various exciting causes which tend to produce san- 

 guineous apoplexy ; for although the immediate cause seems to 

 be an excess of blood in the vessels of the brain, this may be 

 brought about by an overloaded state of the prirooe via?.* In 

 such cases the symptoms somewhat resemble those of stomach 

 staggers ; the animal appears drowsy, feeble, and is constantly 

 hanging or resting his head in the crib. 



When apoplexy proceeds from fluid within the ventricles of the 



* The stomach and intestinal tube are so called. 



