498 EUIiEAU OF ANIMAL IXDUSTKY. 



are theoretical in action. Certain remedies, like simple aromatic teas, 

 vegetable acids, such as vinegar, lemon juice, etc., alkalines in the form 

 of salts, sweet spirits of niter, etc., which are household remedi'^s, are 

 always useful, because the}'' act on the excreting organs and ameliorate 

 the effects of fever. Other remedies, which are to be used to influence 

 the cause of fever, must be selected with judgment and from a thorough 

 knowledge of the nature of the disease. 



INFLUENZA. 



[Synonyms: Pinlceye, typhoid fever, epizooty, epihippic fever, hepatic fever, hilbjus 

 fever, etc.; fibre typhoide, grippe, French; pferdcstanbe, German; gaslro-enterifis of 

 Vatel and d' Arho\a.\; fchris erysipelatodcs, Zundel; <(/;j/(WS of Delafond.] 



Definition. — Influenza is a contagious and infectious specific fever of 

 the horse, ass, and mule, with alterations of the blood, stupefaction of 

 the brain and nervous S3'stem, great depression of the vital forces, and 

 frequent inflammatory complications of the important vascular organs, 

 especially of the lungs, intestines, brain, and lamiiueof the feet. One 

 attack usually protects the animal from future ones of the same disease, 

 but not always. An apparent complete recovery is sometimes followed 

 b}' serious sequelae of the nervous and blood-vessel S3'stems. The dis- 

 ease is ver}' apt, under certain conditions of the atmosphere or from 

 unknown causes, to assume an epizootic form, with tendenc}' to compli- 

 cations of especial organs, as, at one period the lungs, at another the 

 intestines, etc. 



The first description of influenza is given by Laurentius llusius, in 

 1301, A. D., when it spread over a considerable portion' of Ital}^, caus- 

 ing great loss among the war horses of Rome and its surroundings. 

 In 16-18, A. D., an epizootic of this disease visited Germany and spread 

 to other parts of Europe. In 1711, A. D. , under the name of ' ' epidemica 

 eguorum^-^ it followed the tracks of the great armies all over Europe, 

 causing immense losses among the horses, while the rinderpest was 

 scourging the cattle of the same regions. The two diseases were con- 

 founded with each other, and were, by the scientists of the da}', allied to 

 the ty]:>hus, which was a plague to the human race at the same time. 

 We find the first advent of this disease to the British Islands in an epi- 

 zootic among the horses of London and the southern counties of Eng- 

 land, in 1732, which is described by Gibson. In 1758, Robert Whytt 

 recounts the devastation of the horses of the north of Scotland from the 

 same trouble. Throughout the eighteenth century a number of epizo- 

 otics occurred in Hanover and other portions of Germany and in France, 

 which were renewed early in the present century, with complications 

 of the intestinal tract, which obtained for it its name of gastro-enteritis. 

 In 1766 it first attacked the horses in North America, but is not 

 described as again occurring in a severe form until 1870-1872, when it 

 spread over the entire country, from Canada south to Ohio, and then 



