204 THE MALIGNANT EPIDEMIC. 



wandering look, and a staggering from the very commencement. The horse would 



continually lie down and get up ygain, as if tormented bj' colic ; and he gazed alter- 

 nately at both flanks. la the luon.ents of comparative ease, there were universal 

 twitchings of the skin, and spasms of the limbs. The temperature of tJie ears and 

 feet was variable. If there happened to be about the animal any old wound or scar 

 from setoning or firing, it o])enod afresh and discharged a quantity of thick and black 

 blood. Very shortly afterwards the tlanks, which were quiet before, began to heave, 

 the nostrils were dilated, the head extended for breath. The hoise had by this time 

 become so weak that, if he lay or fell down, he could rise no more ; or if he was up, 

 he would stand trembling, staggering, and tbreatening to fall every moment. The 

 mouth was dry, the tongue white, and the breath foetid; a discharge of yellow or 

 bloody foRtid matter proceeded from the nose, and fcetid bloc i from the anus. The 

 duration of the disease did not usually exceed twelve or twenty-four hours ; or if the 

 animal lingered on, swellings of the head and throat, and sheath, and scrotum, fol- 

 lowed, and he died exhausted or in convulsions. 



Black spots of extravasation were found in the cellular membrane, in the tissue of 

 all the membranes, and on the stomach. The mesenteric and lymphatic glands were 

 engorged, black, and gangrenous. The membrane of the nose and the pharynx was 

 highly injected, the lungs were filled with black and frothy blood, or with black and 

 livid spots. The brain and its meninges were unaltered. 



It commenced in March 1783. The barracks then contained one hundred and six- 

 teen horses; all but tliirteen were attacked, and seventy-eight of them died. The 

 horses of both the officers and men were subject to the attack of it; and three horses 

 from the town died, two of v.'hich had drawn the carts that conveyed tlie carcasses 

 away, and the other stood under a window, from which the dung of an infected stable 

 had been thrown out. The disease would probably have spread, but the most sum- 

 mary measures for arresting its progress were ado])ted; every horse in the town was 

 killed that had had the slightest communication with those in the barracks. One 

 horse was inoculated with the pus discharged from the ulcer of an infected horse, and 

 he died. A portion of his thymus gland was introduced under the skin of another 

 horse, and he also died. 



Cause. — The disease was supposed to be connected with the food of the horses. All 

 the oats had been consumed, and the lulium ienntlentum, or awned darnel, had been 

 given instead. It is said that the darnel is occasionally used by brewers to give an 

 intoxicating quality to their malt liquor. For fifteen days no alteration of health 

 was perceived, and then, in less than eighteen hours, nearly forty perished. The sta- 

 ,bles were not crowded, and there was no improper treatment. A man disinterred 

 some of the horses to get at the fat; swellings rapidly appeared in his throat, and he 

 died in two days. A portion of their flesh was given to two pigs and some dogs, and 

 they died. 



M. Bru'jfnone found that bleeding only accelerated the death of the patient. He 

 afterwards tried, and inetfectually, acids, cordials, purgatives, vesicatories, and the 

 actual cautery ; and lie frankly attributes to the power of nature the recovery of the 

 few Mho survived. 



Gilbert's Account i>f the Epidemic tif 1705. — M. Gilbert describes a malignant epi- 

 demic which appeared in Paris in 1795, characterized by duhiess, loss of appetite, 

 weakness, pulse at first rapid and full, and afterwards continuing rapid, but gradu- 

 ally becoming small, weak, and intermittent. The boM'els at first constipated, and 

 then violent purgino succeeding. The weakness rapidly increasing, accompanied 

 by fffitid breath, and fa?tid evacuations. Tumours soon appeared about the limbs, 

 tinder the chest, and in the head, the neck and loins. If they suppurated and burst, 

 the animal usually did well ; but otherwise he inevitably perished. The formation 

 of these tumours was critical. If they rapidly advanced, it was considered as a 

 favourable symptom; but if they continued obscure, a fatal termination was prog- 

 nosticated. 



Bleeding, even in an early stage, seemed here also to be injurious, ;'.nd inereated 

 the debility. Physic was given, and mild and nutritious food, ffvue], and cordials. 

 Deep incisions were made into the tumours, and the cautery applied. iStimulaling 

 frictions were also used, but all were of little avail. 



These cases have been narrated at considerable length, in order to give some idea 

 of the nature of this disease, and because, with the exception of a short but \CTy 



