THE MODERN HORSE DOCTOR. 47 



ner in which the horse is kept and used. Good grooming, light 

 diet, clean stables well ventilated, and light work, are among the 

 best means for warding off an attack of this, which is generally 

 considered an incurable disease. 



" By vertigo is meant a chronic disease of the horse, chiefly 

 indicated by a disturbance of the sensitive faculties, occasioning 

 derangement in the ordinary functions of life. Much that is in- 

 correct has been written regarding the seat, properly so called, 

 of the evil : at present, most veterinary surgeons are agreed 

 in seeking the proximate cause, not as formerly, in the brain, but 

 in the abdominal organs, and in considering the cerebral affection 

 as purely secondary. The vertigo often succeeds acute ence- 

 phalitis, the intensity of which has diminished to a certain degree ; 

 but very frequently also it comes on without having been pre- 

 ceded by inflammation of the brain. It recognizes the same 

 causes as the latter, isolation, confinement in hot and badly aired 

 stables, cold, extreme fatigue, blows and injuries on the head, 

 indigestion, unwholesome or too much food in proportion 

 to the exercise taken. The fear of punishment, especially of 

 the whip, occasionally gives rise to it in sensitive and irritable 

 animals. Some horses have an hereditary predisposition to it, 

 and mares are considered more subject to it than stallions. Fur- 

 ther, it is scarcely ever observed except in hot weather, and as it 

 is generally at the beginning of summer that it commences to 

 appear, it goes away always in autumn, at least with respect to 

 its chief symptoms. These are the following : the horse, a little 

 before lively and active, begins all of a sudden to appear heavy 

 and indolent ; he is dejected, and prefers to keep himself in the 

 darkest corner of the stable, eyes dull, look fixed and stupid, 

 eyelids half shut, inattention to every thing, forgetting even him- 

 self, and, as it were, asleep, and head hanging to the ground, and 

 resting on the manger, or on the rack. His gait is heavy, slow, 

 and unsteady ; he raises the feet very high, and puts the entire 

 sole to the ground, raising and letting down the limbs in a man- 

 ner purely mechanical, and, as it were, unconsciously. He ex- 

 hibits much awkwardness in turning, and cannot be pulled back 

 except by depressing the head very much, and pushing it laterally. 

 Generally, also, he leans on one side in walking. To maintain 



