172 PIIRENITIS. 



should be taken to keep the bowels freely relaxed, and a blister may now 

 be applied to the back of the head, or a seton inserted. For some time the 

 horse should be kepb on a restricted diet ; mashes should be given ; green 

 meat in no great quantity; a moderate allowance of hay, and very little 

 corn until sufficiently recovered, when he may be allowed a more gene- 

 rous diet. 



PHRENITIS INFLAMMATION OF THE BRAIN — MAD STAGGERS. 



Inflammation of the brain or its membranes, or both, sometimes occurs, 

 and of the membranes oftenest when both are not involved. It may be 

 produced by several causes, such as from a tumour pressing on the brain, 

 or fracture and depression of bone, inflammation supervening after the 

 comatose stage has passed ofi". It may also be produced by metastasis, 

 but we most commonly meet with phrenitis in the horse, as a termination 

 of either stomach or sleepy staggers, most frequently the latter. Whatever 

 be the origin of phrenitis, its early symptoms are scarcely difierent from 

 those of stomach or sleepy staggers. The horse is drowsy, stupid ; his eye 

 closes ; he sleeps while he is in the act of eating, and dozes until he falls. 

 The pulse is slow and creeping, and the breathing oppressed and laborious. 

 The symptoms may difier a little in intensity and continuance, but not 

 much in kind. 



The phrenitic horse, however, is not so pei'fectly comatose as another 

 that labours under apoplexy. The eye will respond a little to the action 

 of light, and the animal is somewhat more manageable, or at least more 

 susceptilDle, for he will shrink when he is struck, while the other frequently 

 cares not for the whip. 



K remedial measures have not become effectual in the early stage, the 

 scene all at once changes, and the most violent reaction succeeds. The 

 eye brightens — strangely so ; the membrane of the eye becomes suddenly 

 reddened, and foi'ms a frightful contrast with the transparency of the 

 cornea ; the pupil is dilated to the utmost : the nostril, before scarcely 

 moving, expands, and quivers, and labours ; the respiration becomes short 

 and quick ; the pulse hard and frequent ; the ears are erect, or bent for- 

 ward to catch the shghtest sound ; and the horse becoming more irritable 

 every instant, trembles at the shghtest motion. The irritability of the 

 patient increases — it may be said to change to ferocity — but the animal 

 has no aim or object in what he does. He dashes himself violently about, 

 plunges in every direction, rears on his hind legs, whirls round and round, 

 and then falls backward with dreadful force. He hes for a while ex- 

 hausted — there is a remission of the symptoms, but perhaps only for a 

 minute or two, or possibly for a quarter of an houi\ 



Now is the surgeon's time, and his courage and adroitness will be put 

 to the test. He must open, if he can, one or both jugulars : but let him 

 be on his guard, for the paroxysm will return with its former violence and 

 without the shghtest warning. This is a case, and the only case, in which 

 a hgature should be placed round the neck previously to the vein being 

 opened ; for this being done, however soon the paroxysm of violence may 

 return, a full abstraction of blood may confidently be rehed on. 



The second attack is more dreadful than the first. Again the animal 

 whirls round and round, and plunges and falls. He seizes his clothing 

 and rends it in pieces ; perhaps, destitute of feeling and of consciousness, 

 he bites and tears himself. He darts furiously at everything within his 

 reach ; but no mind, no design, seems to mingle with or govern his fury. 



Another and another remission and a return of the exacerbation follow, 

 and then, wearied out, he becomes quiet ; but it is not the quietness of 

 returning reason — it is mere stupor. This continues for an uncertain 



