200 THE MODERN HORSE DOCTOR. 



with opium. In Germany, alkaline baths, and the internal use 

 of the same remedies, are stated to have been decidedly service- 

 able. Others have advised the large use of bark and wine, 

 which seems, however, rather calculated to be preventives, or to 

 fulfil the third indication ; yet wine may be employed rather as 

 nourishment, since in severe cases little else can be taken. 

 Electricity seems too hazardous a remedy to be tried in a general 

 affection, especially in the muscles of respiration ; but if confined 

 to the jaw it may be useful in a mild form." — ■ Hooper's Dic- 

 tionary. 



SPRINGHALT. 



This peculiar spasmodic affection of muscles in the hind ex- 

 tremities is not so common among American horses as it is 

 among the French and German breeds. It is an affection over 

 which the veterinary surgeon, armed with the whole materia 

 medica, has very little power ; for, in the nervous system first 

 originates the cause, which subsequently gives rise to the peculiar 

 gait termed springhalt ; and the practitioners of all creeds have 

 acknowledged their inability to direct medicine to the nervous 

 structure, even after they have secured its digestion in the 

 stomach. To introduce medicinal agents into the latter is an 

 easy matter, but to make them reach that wonderful and delicate 

 organized substance, the brain, and its nervous filaments, is another 

 affair. These remarks, however, apply to cases of springhalt 

 depending on some lesion of nervous filament, pressure, or atro- 

 phy of the nerves of nutrition. Minor derangements, resulting 

 in spasmodic action, may be relieved, by removing the cause or 

 the morbid habit which induces them. To do this, our treatment 

 must be general ; that is, we must restore healthy action to the 

 whole animal structure, and remove obstructions wherever they 

 exist. 



Before alluding to the treatment, we shall introduce to the 

 reader's attention a selection from Mr. Percivall's lectures, de- 

 livered some thirty-five years ago ; and, if the reader will com- 

 pare that author's views with those of the surgeons of the present 

 day, he will find that they have nothing new to offer. 



The distinguished lecturer on veterinary science remarks, 



