CATARRH, OR COLD. 265 



Accordingly. He bled liim largely, and, in the conrse of the day, the lior&e 

 appeared to be decidedly better, every symptom of pain having vanished. 

 The horse was more lively — he ate with appetite, but his bowels remained 

 constipated. 



On the following day there was a fearful change. The animal was 

 suffering sadly — the breathing was laborious, and the membrane of the 

 nose intensely red, as if it were more a case of inflammation of the lungs 

 than of the bowels. The bowels were still constipated. The patient was 

 bled and i^hysicked again, but without avail. He died, and there was 

 found rupture of the diaphragm, protrusion of intestine into the thoracic 

 cavity, and extensive pleural and peritoneal inflammation. 



In rupture of the diaplrragm the horse occasionally sits on his haunches 

 like a dog, but this is far from being an infallible symptom of the disease. 

 It accompanies introsusception, as well as rupture of the diaphragm. The 

 weight of the intestines may possibly cause any protruded part of them to 

 descend again into the abdomen. 



CATARRH, OR COLD. 



Oafarrk, or cold, is attended by a slight defluxion from the nose — now 

 and then, a slighter weeping from the eyes, and some increased labour of 

 breathing, on account of the uneasiness which the animal experiences from 

 the passao-e of the air over the naturally sensitive and now more than 

 usually irritable surface, and from the air-passage being diminished by a 

 thickening of the membrane. When this is a simply local inflamniation, 

 attended by no loss of appetite or increased animal temperature, it may 

 speedily pass over. 



In many cases, however, the inflammation of a membrane naturally so 

 sensitive, and rendered so morbidly irritable by our absurd treatment, 

 rapidly spreads, and involves the fauces, the Ijmiphatic and some of the 

 salivary glands, the throat, the parotid gland, and the membrane of the 

 larynx. We have then increased discharge from the nose, greater rediiess 

 of the membrane of the nose, more defluxion from the eyes, and loss of 

 appetite from a degree of fever associating itself with the local afiection, 

 and there also being a greater or less degree of pain in the act of swallow- 

 ing, and which if the animal feels he will never eat. Cough now appears 

 more or less frequent or painful ; but with no great acceleration of the 

 pulse, or heaving of the flanks. 



Catarrh may arise from a thousand causes. Membranes subjected to so 

 many sources of irritation soon become irritable. Exposure to cold or 

 rain, change of stable, change of weather, change of the slightest portion 

 of clothing, neglect of grooming, and a variety of circumstances appa- 

 rently trifling, and which they who are unaccustomed to horses would 

 think could not possibly produce any injurious eflTect, are the causes of 

 catarrh. In the spring of the year, and while moulting, a great many 

 young horses have cough ; and "in the dealers' stables, where the process 

 of making up the horse for sale is carrying on, there is scarcely one of 

 them that escapes this disease. 



In the majority of cases, a few warm mashes, warm clothmg, and a 

 cool stable, and a fever ball or two, will set all right. Indeed, aU would 

 soon be right withoiit any medicine ; and much more speedily and per- 

 fectly than if the cordials, of which grooms and farriers are so fond, had 

 been given. Mneteen horses out of twenty with common catarrh will do 

 well ;%ut in the twentieth case, a neglected cough may be the precursor 

 of bronchitis, and pneumonia. These chest affections often insidiously 

 creep on, and inflammation is frequently estabHshed before any one be- 

 longing 'to the horse is aware of its existence. Purgative medicines 



