FEVER. .87 



perty in it. Warm water will do as much good to the horse, who has so thick a skin, 

 as any decoction of chamomile, or marsh-mallow, or poppy heads, or any nostrum 

 that the farrier may recommend. Fomentations increase the warmth of the skin, and 

 open the pores of it, and promote perspiration, and thus lessen the tension and swelling 

 of the part, assuage pain, and relieve inflammation. Fomentations, to be beneficial, 

 should be long and frequently applied, and at as great a degree of heat as can be used 

 without giving the animal pain. Poultices are more permanent, or longer-continued 

 fomentations. The part is exposed to the influence of warmth and moisture i'ormany 

 hours or days without intermission, and perspiration being so long kept np, the dis- 

 tended vessels will be very materially relieved. The advantage derived from a poul- 

 tice is attributable to the heat and moisture, which, by means of it, can be long applied 

 to the skin, and it should be composed of materials which will best retain this moisture 

 and heat. The bran poultice of the farrier is, consequently, objectionable. It is 

 never perfectly in contact with the surface of the skin, and it becomes nearly dry in a 

 few hours, after which it is injurious rather than beneficial. Linseed-meal is a much 

 better material for a poultice, for, if properly made, it will remain moist during many 

 hours. 



It is occasionally very difficult to decide wlicn a cold or a hot application is to be 

 used, and no general rule can be laid down, except that in cases of superficial inflam- 

 mation, and in the early stage, cold lotions will be preferable; but, when the inflam- 

 mation is deeper seated, or fully established, warm fomentations will be most ser- 

 viceable. 



Stimulating applications are frequently used in local inflammation. When the 

 disease is deeply seated, a stimulating application to the skin will cause some irrita- 

 tion and inflammation there, and lessen or sometimes remove the original malady ; 

 hence the use of rowels and blisters in inflammation of the chest. Inflammation to a 

 high degree, cannot exist in parts that are near each other. If we excite it in one, we 

 shall abate it in the other, and also, by the discharge which we establish from the 

 one, we shall lessen the determination of blood to the other. 



Stimulating and blistering applications should never be applied to a part already 

 inflamed. A fire is not put out by heaping more fuel upon it. Hence the mischief 

 which the farrier often does by rubbing his abominable oils on a recent sprain, hot 

 and tender. Many a horse has been ruined by this absurd treatment. When the 

 heat and tenderness have disappeared by the use of cold lotions or fomentations, and 

 the leg or sprained part remains enlarged, or bony matter threatens to be deposited, it 

 may be right to excite inflammation of the skin by a blister, in order to rouse the 

 deeper-seated absorbents to action, and enable them to take up this deposit; but, 

 except to hasten the natural process and effects of inflammation, a blister, or stimu- 

 lating application, should never be applied to a part already inflamed. 



FEVER. 



Fever is general increased arterial action, either without any local affection, or in 

 consequence of the sympathy of the system with inflammation in some particular 

 part. 



The first is pure fever. Some have denied that that exists in the horse, but they 

 must have been strangely careless observers of the diseases of that animal. The truth 

 of the matter is, that the usual stable management and general treatment of the horse 

 are so absurd, and various parts of him are rendered so liable to take on inflammation, 

 that pure fever will exist a very little time without degenerating into inflammation. 

 The lungs are so weakened by the heated and foul air of the ill-ventilated stable, and 

 by sudden changes from almost insufferable heat to intense cold, and the feet are so 

 injured by hard usage and injudicious shoeing, that, sharing from the beginning in the 

 general vascular excitement which characterises fever, they soon become excited far 

 beyond other portions of the frame ; and that which commenced as fever becomes 

 inflammation of the lungs or feet. Pure fever, however, is sometimes seen, and runs 

 its course regularly. 



It frequently begins with a cold or shivering fit, although this is not essential to 

 fever. The horse is dull, unwillins to move, has a staring coat, and cold legs and 

 feet. This is succeeded by warmth of the body ; unequal distribution of warmth to 

 the legs; one hot, and the other three cold, or one or more unnaturally warm, and the 

 others unusually cold, but not the deathlike coldness of inflammation of the lungs ; 



