OO THE MODERN HORSE DOCTOR. 



sponging of the body with warm saleratus water, if the weather 

 is not too cold ; in either case, dry frictions afterwards will exert 

 a favorable action on the cutaneous exhalants. 



Injections of soap and water are to be given should the excre- 

 ment be voided with difficulty, or appear knotty. 



STRANGLES. 



Strangles may set in from the same causes that induce other 

 catarrhal diseases. It is most prevalent in young horses : from 

 " colthood" '* up to the eighth year; after which the disease is 

 somewhat rare. We have seen several well-marked cases occur- 

 ring in Pennsylvania, and in Vermont breeds shortly after their 

 arrival in this city ; their ages varying from five to eight years. 

 As far as our own experience goes, we have nothing to say as to the 

 extent of its prevalence in colthood, for we do not remember ever 

 having been called to treat such a case ; yet there may be a great 

 number of colts attacked in the course of a year, and get over it; 

 of this we have no means of knowing. "We hear, now and then, 

 that such a colt has just recovered from the "horse ail;" but the 

 ambiguousness of the term throws a pall over the nature of the 

 disease, which may, perhaps, be strangles. The disease is, with- 

 out doubt, one of the evils of domestication, and results from 

 errors in diet, and in the general management, which, if we except 

 a few isolated cases, will bear improvement. If it be a disease 

 resembling "small-pox, measles, or an eruptive fever occurring 

 but once in the animal's lifetime," — as some writers contend, — 

 then the sooner every horse has it the better, and we need not 

 trouble ourselves about its causes, for those who have attempted 

 to penetrate the hidden secrets of nature, and bring to light the 

 mysterious cause of a definite disease, have failed, and thus had 

 their labor for their pains. But Mr. Percivall sets the matter at 

 rest, for in answer to the question, Do strangles, in any form, 

 occur in all horses ? he answers, " No ! Many, in my opinion, 

 escape it." Hence, if many escape, it is very natural for those 



* Mr. Percivall, in his Hippo-pathology, records a case of strangles occurring 

 in a colt six months old, and also states that Mr. Coward had observed the dis- 

 ease at three months after birth. 



