PALSY. 109 



cular system of being acted upon by it. Irregular distributions of vital energy are 

 not, however, things to be desired. They argue disease and derangement of the sys- 

 tem, and a predisposition to greater derangement. They materially interfere with the 

 speed of the horse. This was decidedly the case with regard to the poor fellow 

 whose history has been related. 



Stringhalt is decided unsoundness. It is an irregular supply of the nervous influ- 

 ence, or a diseased state of the nervous or muscular system, or both. It prevents us 

 from suddenly and at once calling upon the horse for the full exercise of his speed 

 and power, and therefore it is unsoundness ; but generally speaking, it so little inter- 

 feres with the services of the animal, that although an unsoundness, it would not 

 weigh a great deal against other manifest valuable qualities. 



CHOREA. 



This is a convulsive, involuntary twitching of some muscle or set of muscles. A 

 few, and very few, cases of it in the horse are recorded. Professor Gohier relates 

 one in which it attacked both fore legs, and especially the left, but the affection was 

 not constant. During live or six minutes the spasms were most violent, so that the 

 horse was scarcely able to stand. The convulsions then became weaker, the inter- 

 val between them increased, and at length they disappeared, leaving a slight but tem- 

 porary lameness. All means of cure were fruitlessly tried, and the disease continued 

 until the horse died of some other complaint. In another case it followed sudden 

 suppression of the discharge of glanders and disappearance of the enlarged glands. 

 This also was intermittent during the life of the animal. 



FITS, OR EPILEPSY. 



The stream of nervous influence is sometimes rapid, or the suspensions are consid 

 arable. This is the theory of Fits, or Epilepsy. Fortunately the horse is not often 

 afflicted with this disease, although it is not unknown to the breeder. The attack is 

 not sudden. The animal stops — trembles — looks vacantly around him, and falls. 

 Occasionally the convulsions that follow are slight ; at other times they are terrible. 

 The head and fore part of the horse are most affected, and the contortions are very 

 singular. In a few minutes the convulsions cease ; he gets up ; looks around him 

 with a kind of stupid astonishment ; shakes his ears ; urines ; and eats or drinks as 

 if nothing had happened. 



The only hope of cure consists in discovering the cause of the fits ; and an expe- 

 rienced practitioner must be consulted, if the animal is valuable. Generally speaking, 

 however, the cause is so difficult to discover, and the habit of having fits is so soon 

 formed, and these fits will so frequently return, even at a great distance of time, that 

 he who values his own safety, or the lives of his family, will cease to use an epilep- 

 tic horse. 



PALSY. 



The stream of nervous influence is sometimes stopped, and thence results palsy. 

 The power of the muscle is unimpaired, bi-it the nervous energy is deficient. In tlie 

 human being, general palsy sometimes occurs. The whole bod}'^ — every organ of 

 motion and of sense is paralysed. The records of our practice, however, do not 

 afford us a single instance of this ; but of partial paralysis there are several cases, 

 and most untractable ones they were. The cause of tliem may be altogether unknown. 

 In the human being there is yet another distinction. Hemiplegia and Paraplegia. In 

 the former the affection is confined to one side of the patient; in the latter the poste- 

 rior extremity on both sides is affected. Few cases of hemiplecria occur in the horse, 

 and they are more manageable than those of paraplegia; but if the affection is not 

 removed, they usually degenerate into paraplegia before the death of the animal. I; 

 would appear singular that this should be the most common form of palsy in the 

 human being, and so rarely seen in the quadruped. There are some considerations, 

 however, that will partly account for this. Palsy in the horse usually proceeds from 

 injury of the spinal cord; and that cord is more developed, and far larger than in the 

 human being. It is more exposed to injury, and to injury thr.t will affect not one side 

 "jttiV but the whole of the cord. 

 10 



