EPIDEMIC CATARRH. 201 



Ves, and to the very part, by means of a hot mash, not thrown into the manger over 

 which the head of the horse cannot be confined, but placed in that too-rauch-nnder- 

 valued and discarded article of stable-furniture, the nose-bag. The vapour ot the 

 water will, at every inspiration, pass over the inflamed surface, ^n the majority of 

 cases relief will speedily be obtained, and that suppuration from the part so necessary 

 to the permanent removal of tlie inflammation — a copious discharge of mucus or puru- 

 lent matter from the nostrils — will be hastened. If the discharge does not appear so 

 speedily as could be wished, a stimulant should be applied to the part. The vapour 

 impregnated with turpentine arising from fresh yellow deal saw-dust, used instead of 

 bran, will have very considerable effect in quickening and increasing the suppuration. 

 It may even be resorted to almost from the beginning, if there is not evidently much 

 irritability of membrane. 



A hood is a useful article of clothing in these cases. It increases the perspiration 

 from the surface covering the inflamed part — a circumstance always of considerable 

 moment. 



An equable warmth should be preserved, if possible, over the whole body. The 

 hand-brush should be gently used every da}', and harder and more effectual rubbing 

 applied to the legs. The patient should, if possible, be placed in a loose box, in which 

 he may toddle about, and tal<e a little exercise, and out of which he should rarely, if 

 at all, be taken. The exorcise of which the groom is so fond in these cases, and 

 which must in the most peremptory terms be forbidden, has destroyed thousands of 

 horses. The air should be fresh and uncontaminated, but never chilly ; for the object 

 is to increase and not to repress cutaneous perspiration ; to produce, if possible, a 

 determination of blood to tlie skin, and not to drive it to the part already too much 

 overloaded. In order to accomplish this, the clothing should be rather warmer than 

 usual. 



The case may proceed somewhat slowly, and not quite satisfactorily to the practi- 

 tioner or his employer. There is not much fever — there is little or no local inflam- 

 mation; but there is great emaciation and debility, and total loss of appetite. The 

 quantity of the sedative may then be lessened but not omitted altogether; for the fire 

 may not be extinguished, although for a little while concealed. There are no diseases 

 so insidious and treacherous as these. Mild and vegetable tonics, such as gentian 

 and ginger, may be given. Two days after this the sedative may be altogether omit- 

 ted, and the tonic gradually increased. 



The feeding should now be sedulously attended to. Almost every kind of green 

 meat that can be obtained should be given, particularly carrots nicely scraped and 

 sliced. The food should be changed as often as the capricious appetite prompts; and 

 occasionally, if necessary, the patient should be forced with gruel as thick as it will 

 run from the horn, but the gradual return of health should be well assured, before one 

 morsel of corn is given.* 



A very few weeks ago, the author received from his friend, Mr. Percivall, the fol 

 lowing account of a new and destructive epidemic among horses : — 



" From the close of the past j'^ear and the beginning of the present, up to the time 

 I am writing, the influenza among horses has continued to prevail in the metropolis 

 and different parts of the country with more or less fatality. In London it has 

 assumed the form of laryntxHis, associated in some instances with bronchitis ; in others 

 — in all I believe where it has proved fiital — with pleurisy. The parenchymatous 

 structure of the lungs has not partaken of the disease, or but consecutively and slightl}% 

 The earliest and most characteristic symptom has been sure ihnml ; causing trouble- 

 some dry short cough, but rarely occasioning any difficulty of deglutition, and, in no 

 instance that I have seen, severe or extensive enough to produce anything like dis- 

 gorgement or return of the masticated matters through the nose, and j'et the slightest 

 pressure on the larynx has excited an act of cougrhing. But seldom has any glandular 

 enlargement appeared. The symptom secondarily remarkable after the sore throat 

 and cough has been a dispiritedness or dulness. for which most epidemics of the kind 

 are remarkable. The animal, at the timp of sickening, has hnng his head under the 

 manger, with his eyes half shut, and his lower lip pendent, without evincing any 



* An interesting account of epidemic among horses will be found in the Association Part of 

 " The Veterinarian," vols. xii. and xv. A work, by the author of this volume, is in prepara 

 tion, on the epidemics that have prevailed among all our domesticated animals. 



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