202 EPIDEMIC CATARRH. 



alarm or even much notice, though a person entered his abode or approached him; 

 and if in a box, his head is often found during his illness turned towurd the door or 

 window. Fever, without anj' disturbance of the respiration, has always been ])resent ; 

 the pulse has been accelerated, though rather small and weak in its beat than indica- 

 tive of strngth; the mouth has been hot, sometimes burning hot, afterwards moist, 

 and perhaps saponaceous; the skin and extremities in general have been warm. Now 

 and then the prostration and appearance of debility have been such, and so rapid in 

 their manifestation, that, shortly after being attacked, a horse has staggeringly walked 

 twenty yards only — the distance from his stable into an infirmary-box. The iippetite, 

 though impaired nmch, has seldom been altogether lost. Generally, if a little fresh 

 hay has been offered, it has been taken and eaten ; but to mashes there has been com- 

 monly great aversion. During the long continuance of the wind in the east, the sore 

 throat and cough have been unattended by any flux from the nose; but since the wind 

 has shifted within this last fortnight or three weeks, discharges from the nostrils have 

 appeared, profuse even in quantitjr, and purulent in their nature; in fact, the disease 

 has assumed a more catarrhal character — erL!;o, I might add, a more favourabl(> one. 



"The disorder has exhibited every phase and degree of intensity, from the slightest 

 perceivable dulness, which has passed ofl' with simply a change in the diet, to an 

 insidious, unyielding, unsubduable pleurisy, ending in hydrothorax, in spite of every- 

 thing that could be done, and most timely done. ISo long as the disease has confined 

 itself to the throat, and that there has been along with that only dejection, prostration, 

 and fever, there has existed no cause for alarm ; but when such symptoms have, after 

 some days' continuance, not abated, and have, on the contrary, rather increased, and 

 others have arisen which but too well have authorised suspicions that ' mischief was 

 brewing in the chest,' then there became the strongest reasons for alarm for the safety 

 of the patient. What is now to be done 1 The practitioner durst not bleed a second 

 time, at least not generally, for the patient's strength would not endure it, although he 

 is certain a pleurisy is consuming his patient. He possesses no effectual means for 

 topical blood-letting. Neither blisters nor rowels, nor plugs nor setcns, will take 

 any efiVct. Cathartic medicine he must not administer; nauseants are uncertain and 

 doubtful in their efficacy ; sedatives, tonics, and stimulants and narcotics, appear 

 counter-indicated, inflammation existing, and, when tried under such circumstances, 

 have, I believe, never failed to do harm. 



"Dissatisfied with one and all of these remedies in the late influenza — though the 

 losses I have experienced have, after all, not been so very comparatively great, being 

 no more, since the beginning of the year, than three out of nearly forty cases — I 

 repeat, having, as I thought, reason to be dissatisfied for losing even these three cases, 

 considering that they came under my care at the earliest period of indisposition, I 

 determined, in any similar cases that might occur, to have recourse to that medicine 

 which, in all membranous inflannnations in particular, is the physician's sheet-anchor, 

 and which I had exhibited, and still continue to do, myself, in other disorders, though 

 I had never given it a fair trial in epidemics having that tendency which 1 have 

 described the present one uniformly to have indicated, viz., the destruction of life by 

 an inflammation attacking membranous parts, of a nature over which, being forl)idden 

 to bleed, we appeared to possess little or no power. Could we have drawn blood 

 from the sides or breast, by cupping or by leeches, in any tolerable quantity, we 

 might have had some control over the internal disease; but barred from this, and 

 without any remedy save a counter-irritant, which we could not make net, or an 

 internal medicine, whose action became extremely dubious, if not positively hurtful, 

 what was to be done ? I repeat, I made up my mind to experiment with the surgeon's 

 remedy in the same disease, namely, mercury ; and that I have had reason t'tj feel 

 gratified at the result will, I think, appear from the followinn- cases: — 



" Case I. — April 8. Every symptom of tlie prev;iilin<r epidemic : and censidfirnbly 

 aggravated on the 10th, when the horse l;il)ourr(i under much ))rostrntion of strenirtli, 

 and staggered considerably in his gait. The following IniU was then ordi-n-d to bo 

 given him twice a day: li Ilydrarg. cblorid. oi. fnrin. fivena^ 3ss. tenhinth. vulg. 

 q. s. ut fiat bol. One to be o-iven morning and night. He seen beuan to improve: 

 and was returned to the stable on the 2(;th, convalescent. A secerd patirrt p\' the 

 same character was cured in eighteen days, and a third in nineteen days." Th^ 

 author of this work had the pleasure of witnessinir these cases. 



Mr. Percivall adds, "Lest it should be said, after the perusal of these three cases 



